Biomedical practices from a patient perspective. Experiences of Polish female migrants in Barcelona, Berlin and London
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2171414 |
|---|---|
| Authors | I Main (0000-0002-9881-6838, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 188-204 |
| Publication date | 2016-05-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1364-8470 • E-ISSN: 1469-2910 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13648470.2016.1180579 |
| PMID | 27258327 |
| OpenAlex | W2414615928 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 20 |
This paper focuses on the diversity in patients' experience of bio-medicine and contrasts it with the normative view characteristic of health professionals. Ethnographic fieldwork among Polish migrant women in London, Barcelona and Berlin included interviews about their experiences with local healthcare and health professionals. Themes drawn from the narratives are differences between the cities in terms of communication between patients and health professionals, respect for patients' choices and dignity, attitudes to pregnancy and birth (different levels of medicalization), and paediatric care. It is argued that patients continuously negotiate among their own views and expectations based on previous experiences and knowledge from personal communication; internet forums and publications; and the offer of medical services in the countries of their settlement. Patients experience pluralism of therapeutic traditions within and outside bio-medicine. In turn, representatives of bio-medicine are rarely aware of other medical practices and beliefs and this leads to various misunderstandings. By highlighting the pluralism of medical practices in European countries and the increasing mobility of patients, this case study has useful implications for medical anthropologists and health professionals in a broader Western context, such as raising sensitivity to different communication strategies and a diversity of curing traditions and expectations
Context (archaeology · Diversity (politics · Health care · Medicalization · Narrative · Negotiation · Pluralism (philosophy · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Gender Studies · Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism · History · Law · Medicine · Migration, Identity, and Health · Nursing
Medical diversity of migrants’ physical and mental health understandings
Women, Migrations and Health
Central and Eastern European Migrants in the United Kingdom
The perceptions of general practice among Central and Eastern Europeans in the United Kingdom
Diagnostic testing
Ukrainian women's maternity care strategies in Poland after the outbreak of the full-scale war
Transnational healthcare as process
Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge
Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction
Birth in four cultures
Asian Medical Systems
Seeking affective health care
Medical Travels of Polish Female Migrants in Europe
High Mobility of Polish Women
Therapeutic landscapes
Health identities
Therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory
Embodying Culture
Motherhood, ethnicity and experience
Of relics, body parts and laser beams
Illness, Biomedicine, and Alternative Healing in Brittany, France
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |