The Sick Role and Application in the Nursing Practice :: Nursing Essays

IntroductionThe processes of life were being born, growing old, having illness, and death. In our life, we suffered from disparate drawness. It was a good reason for the absent from school, ready or other daily working activities. However, in the view of a sociologist, the plurality who were in the unhinged role, they were regarded as having committed a crime and it was hardened as deviant behavior (Peter & Meredith, 1998). In the structural functional model, the great unwashed took various tasks and role in family or in different institutions. These were dependable with the structures and norms of the society. Did sickness have any effective elements in society? This paper would describe the concept of sick role and the application in the nursing practice (Parson, 1979). Concept of sick roleTalcott Parsons (1902 1979) was a illustrious American sociologist and a structural functionalist. He developed a widely distributed theoretical system for analyzing the society. In his theoretical system, people hold their placement and perform their role in the society, which was called neighborly role. In his concept, the social roles were anticipate behaviors (including rights and obligations) of everyone with a given position in society (Diligio, 2005). This kind of social role maintained the structural and functional status of the society. I employ Mr. lee side as an example to illustrate about the social roles. Mr. lee was a registered nurse. He lived with his wife and his daughter. According to the Parsonss theoretical system, Mr. Lee has three social roles. At hospital, he took a role as a nurse. He cared his patients. At home, he took a role as husband to his wife and a role as father to his daughter.The sick role was first defined by Talcott Parsons (1951) in his seminal work which was describing a set of behaviors. These behaviors were associated with people who became acutely ill. As described by Parsons, the sick role was a p rocess in which an individual experiences a change in role identity or role expectations. As a result, people were suffered from the illness. Base of the Parsons, there were some components in the sick role. Firstly, the illness was involuntary. Secondly, residents of the sick role were exempted from their usual work family, civic and permits to be take care of by health care professionals and others.