[Medical sociology: origin and field of action]. / Sociología médica: origen y campo de acción.

A review of the published literature on the origin of medical sociology and its field of action was made. For this, several publications were analyzed and the most relevant aspects were summarized. Although the concept of disease has always been linked to sociocultural aspects, only until the mid-twentieth century, Medicine recognized the importance of sociology to explain health-related issues, especially the social determinants of health. Currently, sociologists work in a multidisciplinary way with doctors to investigate and analyze issues concerning the health of people, to improve the welfare and quality of life of the population. In this sense, the contribution of Sociology has not only enriched the understanding of some diseases, but also different aspects of the work of Medicine.

Se hizo una revisión de la literatura publicada sobre el origen de la sociología médica y su campo de acción. Para ello, se analizaron diversas publicaciones y se resumieron los aspectos más relevantes. A pesar de que la enfermedad siempre ha estado ligada a aspectos socioculturales, recién a mediados del siglo XX, la medicina reconoce la importancia de la sociología en la explicación de temas relacionados a la salud, especialmente para explicar los determinantes sociales de la salud. En la actualidad, los sociólogos trabajan de manera multidisciplinaria con médicos para investigar y analizar cuestiones concernientes a la salud de las personas, para mejorar el bienestar y la calidad de vida de la población. En este sentido, el aporte de la sociología no solo ha enriquecido la comprensión de algunas enfermedades, sino también diferentes aspectos en el quehacer de la medicina.

Using clinical vignettes to assess doctors' and medical students' ability to identify sociocultural factors affecting health and health care.

BACKGROUND: Methods are needed for assessing clinicians' cultural knowledge frameworks. METHOD: We used a mail survey containing four short clinical vignettes to explore respondents' ability to identify sociocultural factors affecting health and health care. Participants included 299 physicians working at the University Hospitals of Geneva, 156 private physicians, and all 134 local medical students in their clinical years. Twenty-one sociocultural "domains" were identified through inductive coding of responses. For each vignette, we obtained the sum of codes as a measure of the respondent's awareness of sociocultural factors that might affect care in this particular situation. As internal consistency was reasonably high (0.68), we computed a single total score as the sum of responses given to all four vignettes. RESULTS: Reponses correlated with factors that might be expected to impact clinicians' awareness of sociocultural factors affecting care. Medical students, females, respondents who had received cultural competence training, those with greater interest in caring for immigrant patients, and those with high self-assessed skills at exploring psychosocial and migration-related issues scored higher on the vignettes. CONCLUSIONS: Brief clinical vignettes appear to be a relevant and feasible method for exploring physicians' knowledge of social and cultural factors affecting health and health care.

Fundamentos de la psicoterapia de grupo en la práctica médica (III): contexto epistemológico y disciplinar de los grupos / Foundations of group psychotherapy in medical practice (III): epistemologic and disciplinary context of the groups

¿Cuáles son los fundamentos de la psicoterapia de grupo para la psicología médica? Nos centraremos en las siguientes cuestiones: las relaciones terapéuticas, el terapeuta y su formación, las indicaciones clínicas (ventajas y limitaciones) y los aspectos epistemológicos. En este trabajo se ha considerado el grupo como elemento central resultante de cinco áreas: medicina, psicología, psicoanálisis, sociología y teatro. Las relaciones entre ellas, las confrontaciones con el grupo y los procesos de interacción, nos ayudarán a comprender el contexto de la representación y el campo epistemológico. La conclusión final es de recoger la enseñanza procedente de este campo en la formación de los médicos y su papel decisivo como agentes terapéuticos en los grupos y en las familias (AU)

Towards a sociology of CAM and nursing.

Over recent years a sporadic, but not insignificant, sociology of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has begun to emerge. However, to date, the systematic sociological study of the apparent affinity between CAM, nursing as a profession and its practitioners has been absent from it. In this paper we argue for the need for a rigorous sociology of nursing and CAM and set out a provisional framework through which this might be operationalized. Three broad themes, as well as cross-cutting issues, are outlined. The way in which the challenges of CAM are mediated at the level of the individual and the profession are pivotal to analysis. An understanding of this mediation is crucial both as a means of extending knowledge, and as a means of engaging with complex issues such as the role of evidence, and the equity of provision, that are likely to accompany any extension of CAM mainstreaming.