| Abstrakt: |
The use of informal terms by young physicians to describe patients is analyzed by examining the use of one such term, "gomer." Patients labeled gomers by internal medicine housestaff in a university hospital were found to present more difficult diagnostic, therapeutic, and behavioral problems, to suffer more mental decline, to remain in the hospital longer, and to be less able to return to their own homes and usual adult roles. Gomers were no more ill than control patients; however, their problems were more frustrating, engendered disagreement, and aroused uncertainty in the housestaff caring for them. "Gomerism" is not just a characteristic of patients, but is a phenomenon arising from their interaction with the social system of the hospital and in particular with young physicians in a transitional stage of training. "Gomerism" reflects larger dilemmas in the health care system and society. Gomers represent the failure of technological medicine to eliminate illness and to heal the aging as well as the failure of society to provide humane care for the socially isolated patient whose illness is not tidily resolved by either cure or death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
