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Only a Piece of Meat

One Patient's Reflections on Her Eight-Day Hospital Experience

Towson University, Towson, Maryland

Patients in hospitals are often treated as objects without regard for their subjective sense of self. The following narrative is an account of the day-to-day experiences of one patient's recent hospital confinement. It is a demonstration of her loss of subjective freedom and her struggle to regain her dignity and sense of self through negotiated interactions. Main topics include patient indignities, loss of power and control, patient management work, and identity maintenance. The ethnomethodological perspective is invoked as an interpretive method of inquiry.

Key Words: patient's hospital experiences • narrative • subjective freedom • patient work • negotiated interactions • ethnomethodology

Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, 596-620 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1077800405282799


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