Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals

Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals examines various social and behavioral factors that affect health and illness, with a particular focus on how these phenomena inform clinical practice. The book introduces interdisciplinary insights from fields like sociology, psychology, and epidemiology to elucidate important and often problematic features of patient care routinely confronting physicians, nurses, and other allied health practitioners. Each chapter provides clear learning objectives and is organized around core concepts to facilitate clinicians' abilities to think in new and expanded ways about health and illness, as well as patient and professional interactions. The content explores the implications of a shifting epidemiological landscape; the critical roles of social factors as fundamental causes of health and disease; health disparities; the medicalization process and resulting changes in diagnostic patterns and expectations of practitioners; understandings of the illness experience of patients; interpersonal and interprofessional collaboration; clinical bioethics and the social psychology of ethical decision-making; and the significance of health system design and health policy. As a result, the book represents an important resource for improving patient care, particularly at a time when health is more intricately linked to social and behavioral conditions than ever before.

“Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals demonstrates what the social sciences have to offer people preparing for health professions. It brings frameworks, concepts, and research to analysis of health issues and presents this knowledge in a manner that can be used to inform health practice”

Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals is a very sophisticated textbook that covers a wide range of social science and behavioral concepts and information related to health and healthcare systems. [...] Once read, it will be a book [students] will keep in their permanent reference library.

Drawing upon historical and modern sociological thinking, relevant research, and current case examples, Hinote and Wasserman create a greater appreciation for the social determinants of health and the matrix of inequalities that impact health care. With humor and daring, the authors challenge health professionals to work together to examine their own practice behaviors and assumptions within the domains of both clinical and population health.

Hinote and Wasserman have created an impressively broad and detailed introduction to disciplinary competencies that prove increasingly essential for student success in health professions programs and beyond. Their ambitious and creative approach to bringing human sciences to life for clinical professions students and faculty sets a high benchmark for other interdisciplinary health sciences textbooks to meet in the future.

Dr. Brian P. Hinote is an Associate Professor and Administrative Fellow at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In addition to clinical and research experience in areas as diverse as pediatrics, neurology, and cell biology, Dr. Hinote’s interdisciplinary work appears in multiple books and peer-reviewed journals in the social sciences, nursing, and medicine. With previous research stretching across multiple continents, his most recent work focuses on the various ways that social and behavioral science perspectives intersect and inform health care delivery and policy, clinical practice, and the work of various health professions. As a researcher and experienced educator, Dr. Hinote possesses valuable expertise working with students in various health fields, as well as health professionals already in the workforce.Dr. Jason Adam Wasserman is Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine where he serves as course director for Medical Humanities and Clinical Bioethics. He also teaches a variety of courses in bioethics and medical sociology and serves as Faculty Advisor on Professionalism. His scholarly work has focused moral reasoning patterns in clinical ethics, the medicalization of homelessness, the sociological impacts of the epidemiological transition on medicine, and the influences of neighborhood infrastructures and community networks on health outcomes among the urban poor. His 2010 book, At Home on the Street, explored sociological phenomena surrounding street homelessness and was awarded honorable mention for the Annual Book Award from the Association for Humanist Sociology. He also co-directed a documentary film entitled American Refugees: Homelessness in Four Movements (2011).

Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals examines various social and behavioral factors that affect health and illness, with a particular focus on how these phenomena inform clinical practice. The book introduces interdisciplinary insights from fields like sociology, psychology, and epidemiology to elucidate important and often problematic features of patient care routinely confronting physicians, nurses, and other allied health practitioners. Each chapter provides clear learning objectives and is organized around core concepts to facilitate clinicians' abilities to think in new and expanded ways about health and illness, as well as patient and professional interactions. The content explores the implications of a shifting epidemiological landscape; the critical roles of social factors as fundamental causes of health and disease; health disparities; the medicalization process and resulting changes in diagnostic patterns and expectations of practitioners; understandings of the illness experience of patients; interpersonal and interprofessional collaboration; clinical bioethics and the social psychology of ethical decision-making; and the significance of health system design and health policy. As a result, the book represents an important resource for improving patient care, particularly at a time when health is more intricately linked to social and behavioral conditions than ever before.

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