Good Patients and Problem Patients: Conformity and Deviance in a General Hospital

Abstract

This study investigates the attitudes and behavior of surgical patients and the reactions of doctors and nurses to that behavior. Previous research had suggested that medical personnel encourage trust, cooperation, uncomplaining-. ness, and undemandingness in but that not all patients subscribe to these norms to the same degree. This study found that patients did differ in the extent of their acceptance of good-patient norms, and, as predicted, that those who did not completely accept them were less submissive to hospital routines than were patients who did completely accept them. The doctors and nurses tended to term patients who interrupted well-established routines and made extra work for them patients, but how such patients were treated depended on the severity of their illness. Possible consequences of being labeled a problem patient are premature discharge, neglect, and referral to a psychiatrist.