Experience of hospital discharge
A new study co-authored by HSMC Deputy Director Professor Justin Waring sheds light on negative patient experience at the point of hospital discharge.
A new study co-authored by HSMC Deputy Director Professor Justin Waring sheds light on negative patient experience at the point of hospital discharge.
A new study by HSMC Deputy Director Professor Justin Waring and Simon Bishop (Nottingham Business School) explores the patient experience of hospital discharge through the lens of political theory, in particular the work of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben.
The authors interpret hospital discharge as crossing various social, cultural and political thresholds (hospital/home, inpatient/outpatient, unwell/well), influenced by an interplay of professional expertise, scientific evidence, and organisational‐legal bureaucracies.
Almost all participants taking part in their study described discharge as an important symbolic spatial‐temporal ‘threshold’ between hospital and community that represented aspirations for recovery, wellbeing and dignity. The study describes the negative discharge experiences of participants, with three key findings:
J. Waring and S. Bishop (2019) Health States of Exception: unsafe non‐care and the (inadvertent) production of ‘bare life’ in complex care transitions. Sociology of Health and Illness [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12993 [Accessed 20 September 2019]