University of Victoria

Health and Equity - the interrelationship I

How healing and illness is related to social structures, social processes and the social determinants of health. As well as the political, social and economic circumstances that shape the experiences of those involved.

Session Organizer: Saeed Hydaralli, York University, saeedhydar@hotmail.com ; Merle Jacobs, York University, merlej@yorku.ca

Inequality, Nursing, and Silence

Shirin Khayambashi, York University's Graduate Program in Sociology, khayamba@yorku.ca

When doing a survey for Equity in health professions, I was faced with unwilling nurses and different nursing associations for survey participation. This research was a re-visitation of a previous research project, which focused on collegiality and the nursing culture. Nurses, who responded, expressed dissatisfaction, exploitation, and a sense of understanding of the culture at hand. This unwillingness led me toward a personal thesis, which stem out of research frustration. Merle Jacobs, in her book Cappuccino principles, explains the importance of hierarchy among nurses and bureaucratic structure of nursing profession, and how it constructs an unbalanced control of power, which leads to exploitation of staff nurses by the management. It is important to understand the culture of ideal nurse, which is exploitive and radicalized. However, I will be looking into why nurses are unwilling in 2012 to participate in a survey that looked into collegiality, equity at the staff nurse level. Are today’s nurses different from nurses in 2000?

Friday June 7, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160

Health Outcomes in Hostile Work Environments

Caroline Suchit, York University, csuchit@gmail.com

This autoethnographic study will look into the managerial psychological treatment and its effects of the health of the front line service workers in accordance to the poor results attained when dealing with customers. Verbal and psychological abuse towards the front line service workers facilitates psychological stress which in turn promotes unfavorable customer service outcomes. This subculture of high tension can lead leads to a lack of equity. This case study will be interpreted through the research of Hagey, Jacobs and et al.

Friday June 7, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160

Caregiving and the Problem of the Self-Other Relationship

Saeed Hydaralli, Department of Equity Studies York University, shydar@yorku.ca

Caregiving as a social practice has long been an object of conventional sociological analysis. Such analyses have concerned themselves with, among other considerations, the gendered nature of caregiving, the physical and emotional challenges of caregiving, and the potential for changes at the levels of policy and social structure. Taking those contributions as a point of departure, the objective of this paper is to identify and engage with the kinds of complex problem-solving situations that caregiving as a social practice presents. Put differently, what aspects of human relations and the human condition do caregiving, care-receiving, aging, and dying bring to view? For instance, how does caregiving bring to view different aspects, including the tensions, of the parent-child relationship? Similarly, illness, aging and dying forces both the caregiver and the cared-for to confront questions having to do with quality of life and death.

Friday June 7, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-160