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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Scott-Ford, Alesia, December 1991 - THE GERIATRIC MEDICAL TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION OF PHYSICIANS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Abstract: This study compares geriatric medical training and the professional socialization that goes on during such training to the professional socialization typical of pediatrics, surgery, and psychiatry. Initially, an ethnographic study was conducted to discover attributes which are typical and unique to the subculture of geriatric physicians. As a result of the preliminary investigation of geriatricians, propositions were formulated in order to compare the subcultures of medical specialties. Based on the ethnographic data, this research proposes that geriatric medical training and professional socialization allow for physicians to: (1) be less compartmentalized; (2) use more sociomedical factors in the treatment of patients; (3) retain more of their personal and social identity; (4) have less pride of clinical judgment; and (5) work and train at a slower pace than the other medical specialties. In order to make the comparisons, autobiographical data were obtained from pediatricians, surgeons, and psychiatrists to get descriptions of various training processes and to discover how the trainees perceived their training. The findings indicated that medical training and professional socialization are cultural processes with important subcultural differences. The data revealed that geriatric medical training is less competitive than surgical training, and it does not encourage individuality in the treatment of patients. In comparison to surgery, geriatric training is not as laboring and mentoring. Similar to psychiatry and pediatrics, geriatric medical training is less pressuring than surgery. This research indicated that geriatric medical training allows for physicians to be less compartmentalized than pediatric, surgical, and psychiatric training. Similarly, sociomedical factors are used more in the treatment of patients in geriatrics as opposed to surgery and pediatrics. Finally, it was observed that geriatric medical training has a slower work pace than surgery and a faster work pace than psychiatry.
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