Review by Choice Review
Sociologists Apesoa-Varano (Univ. of California, Davis) and Varano (California State Univ., Sacramento) provide an excellent account of how various health care professionals--physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.--perceive their roles and responsibilities in an in-patient health care delivery setting. The "Hospital General" is portrayed very authentically, and readers can become totally involved in each patient scenario. Having shadowed health care professionals and their interactions with patients for 3,200 hours and conducted 500 hours of follow-up interviews with these same health care professionals, the authors have captured the depth and soul of what actually transpires in a hospital. They also illustrate very realistically the conflicts that occur on a daily basis at a busy general hospital in the US today. The book offers excellent applications of theoretical concepts that can help readers understand the work culture of health care. The penultimate chapter on unions is very appropriately subtitled "The Elephant in the Room" and may be especially interesting to readers who have been patients in busy medical centers recently. A comprehensive reference list supports this very-well-written book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Students of all levels, researchers/faculty, professionals/practitioners, and general readers. --Sheila Carey Grossman, Fairfield University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
