Bio-Medical Model of Health: History, Overview and Analysis Nursing Assignment
Bio-Medical Model of Health: History, Overview and Analysis
INTRODUCTION
Efficient, cost effective and patient centred care matching the needs of a complex, rapid changing health care industry is important as it undergoes a complete reconstruction. Keeping in mind its intricate nature, it is imperative that collaboration occurs in all stages of the planning process to ensure a smooth transition. The sheer volume of changes can be overwhelming, however nurses need to seek the window of opportunity and develop a new set of skills or utilize existing skills focusing on flexibility and adaptability to create new career pathways that can move nursing in a direction that has not been seen before. What is paramount in this equation however is the need to use knowledge from our past, building on its foundations to ensure sustainability.
This literature review is based on discussing the Bio-Medical Model beginning with a historical perspective, synthesizing components within, leading to events which have driven the need for major changes in the health structure, design, process and delivery of health care. By reflecting on the past we can gain an understanding on economic, cultural, political and social influences that have helped shape our health climate and the way we work. This will enable us to gain knowledge and apply this to our future using a well grounded approach.
Throughout history there have been many leaders who have contributed to shaping the Bio-Medical Model of Health and Illness which is the dominant model used in Medicine within the Western World, and is over centuries old. Rene Descartes in the 1700s recognized the mind and body were separate entities hence today there are different practitioners treating them, each with their own set of literature and research (Cannon, 2014). Maher (n.d) argues that the mind and body are inextricably bound and there is no division between them. Alternatively some of the Eastern traditions work on the philosophy that the mind, body and all existential matter work together like a well oiled machine.(Large, E 1996). Many other people helped lay the foundations of the Bio-medical model of Health and illness for instance Louis Pasteur recognised that diseases are spread by bacteria and could be killed through sterilisation with Koch building on this concept by discovering that certain bacteria caused a particular type of disease.