Module SOCI2321: Sociology of Health and Medicine

Department: Sociology

SOCI2321: Sociology of Health and Medicine

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide students with a sociological framework for understanding the nature of health and illness, and related issues.
• To develop students' sociological reasoning in relations to health, illness, the institutions of biomedicine and contemporary health care.

Content

• The module will be taught through four thematic blocks which are:
• Becoming and being ill in contemporary society (social definitions of health and illness).
• Technologies and the body (new medical technologies and their consequences).
• Social patterning of health and illness (health inequalities).
• Social organisation of healthcare (global, national and planetary health).

Learning Outcomes

• At the end of the course students will:
• Understand the social nature, determinants and experiences of health and illness.
• Be able to employ theoretical concepts from medical sociology, health studies and related disciplines to understand and explain the social nature of health, illness, biomedicine and healthcare in contemporary industrial societies.
• Be able to relate sociological theories of health and illness to diverse empirical medical sociology research encompassing different illnesses and patient experiences.
• Be able to relate sociological theories of health and illness to health policy and provision with a particular attendance to critical understandings and inequalities.
• Be able to articulate, in depth, an argument which relates medical sociology theories to a particular illness or condition.

• By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
• Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence in health contexts.
• Employ the conceptual apparatus of sociology in relation to health issues.
• Undertake and present health related work in a scholarly fashion.
• Apply theoretical and empirical knowledge to an in-depth case study of a particular illness or condition.
• Employ theoretical and methodological expertise as appropriate in health related area.
• Be able to convey, both orally and in writing, the meaning of complex theoretical and methodological health-related concepts with health relevance.
• Perceive the relevance of, and relate their sociological knowledge to contemporary issues in health and related issues.

• By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
• Demonstrate some basic health-related numeracy skills, i.e. ability to read and interpret epidemiological and public health data in tables, graphs and charts.
• Demonstrate the ability to gather and organise diverse evidence into a cohesive case study of a particular illness or condition.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources.
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve one's learning and performance through peer support.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching is based on lectures and seminars and is structured around the learning outcomes above.
• Lectures (weekly) are designed to introduce students to the major themes, ideas, issues and debates in medical sociology, providing a broad framework for more empirically-focused seminar discussions.
• Seminars (fortnightly) are designed to provide a peer supportive workshop space in which students use their chosen case study illness or condition to scaffold discussions about the major content introduced in lectures. Students will be encouraged and expected to be active participants in seminars, recognising that seminars are a key formative space and opportunity in the module.
• The module is summatively assessed by an ‘Illness Portfolio’. For this, students will choose a case study illness or condition which they will use throughout the academic year as a lens to interrogate the module content. At the end of the year, students will write the ‘illness portfolio’ wherein they use their case study condition as an exemplar of a particular issue, debate or topic in medical sociology. The illness portfolio will encourage students to engage in wider reading and connection-making and help students develop their skills in note-taking, evidence gathering, organisation and analysis. It will also provide an ongoing, year-long opportunity for formative feedback (from seminar leaders and peers).
• The module has two optional formative assignments:
• ‘topic overview’
• A more standard ‘essay plan’.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

An optional ‘topic overview’ of up to 400 words wherein students present a written description of their chosen case study condition focusing on either its epidemiology or its symptomology. This overview is intended as a draft section of the ‘illness portfolio’. An optional ‘essay plan’ of up to 400 words wherein students offer an outline of the structure and arguments of their ‘illness portfolio’ summative assignment.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.