IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v264y2020ics0277953620306213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective

Author

Listed:
  • Wiltshire, Gareth
  • Pullen, Emma
  • Brown, Frankie F.
  • Osborn, Mike
  • Wexler, Sarah
  • Beresford, Mark
  • Tooley, Mark
  • Turner, James E.

Abstract

Improving the patient experience is widely recognised as an important goal in the delivery of high-quality healthcare. This study contributes to this goal with a particular focus on the role of the material hospital environment for patients being treated for cancer. Extending the burgeoning literature utilising materialist theoretical approaches in social science and medicine, we report on qualitative data with 18 participants who had received cancer treatment from one UK hospital. Our analysis offers a typology of ways in which the material hospital environment is affective: through patients’ direct intra-actions with nonhuman materiality; through providing shared spaces within which human-human assemblages are actualised; and through being the material component of the practices of treatment. Within each process in this typology, the analysis highlights how the affective feeling states which play a critical role in patient wellbeing are in many ways contingent, fluid and context-sensitive. Amidst ambitions to improve the patient experience, these findings underline the significance of materialities of care and offer a broad explanatory typology with analytic and practical potential for healthcare staff, patient groups, architects and designers.

Suggested Citation

  • Wiltshire, Gareth & Pullen, Emma & Brown, Frankie F. & Osborn, Mike & Wexler, Sarah & Beresford, Mark & Tooley, Mark & Turner, James E., 2020. "The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:264:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620306213
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306213
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113402?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McDougall, A. & Goldszmidt, M. & Kinsella, E.A. & Smith, S. & Lingard, L., 2016. "Collaboration and entanglement: An actor-network theory analysis of team-based intraprofessional care for patients with advanced heart failure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 108-117.
    2. Angie Butterfield & Daryl Martin, 2016. "Affective sanctuaries: understanding Maggie’s as therapeutic landscapes," Landscape Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 695-706, August.
    3. Greenhalgh, Trisha & Stones, Rob, 2010. "Theorising big IT programmes in healthcare: Strong structuration theory meets actor-network theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1285-1294, May.
    4. Williams, Allison, 1998. "Therapeutic landscapes in holistic medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1193-1203, May.
    5. Melo, Sara, 2018. "The role of place on healthcare quality improvement: A qualitative case study of a teaching hospital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 136-142.
    6. Lindberg, Kajsa & Walter, Lars & Raviola, Elena, 2017. "Performing boundary work: The emergence of a new practice in a hybrid operating room," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 81-88.
    7. Foglino, Silvia & Bravi, Francesca & Carretta, Elisa & Fantini, Maria Pia & Dobrow, Mark J. & Brown, Adalsteinn D., 2016. "The relationship between integrated care and cancer patient experience: A scoping review of the evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 55-63.
    8. Martin, Daryl & Nettleton, Sarah & Buse, Christina, 2019. "Affecting care: Maggie's Centres and the orchestration of architectural atmospheres," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    9. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2019. "Matter beginning to matter: On posthumanist understandings of the vital emergence of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 123-134.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lupton, Deborah & Lewis, Sophie, 2022. "Sociomaterialities of health, risk and care during COVID-19: Experiences of Australians living with a medical condition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Flore, Jacinthe & Kokanović, Renata & Broom, Alex & Heynemann, Sarah & Lai-Kwon, Julia & Jefford, Michael, 2023. "Entanglements and imagined futures: The subject(s) of precision in oncology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Ping-Chuan & Hung, Shiu-Wan, 2016. "An actor-network perspective on evaluating the R&D linking efficiency of innovation ecosystems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 303-312.
    2. Reiss, Michael & Greene, Carolyn A. & Ford, Julian D., 2017. "Is it time to talk? Understanding specialty child mental healthcare providers' decisions to engage in interdisciplinary communication with pediatricians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 66-71.
    3. Allison Williams & Peter Kitchen, 2012. "Sense of Place and Health in Hamilton, Ontario: A Case Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(2), pages 257-276, September.
    4. Lee, Kenneth & Manochin, Melina, 2021. "Sell-side equity analysts and equity sales: a study of interaction," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108953, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Greenhalgh, Trisha & Wherton, Joe & Sugarhood, Paul & Hinder, Sue & Procter, Rob & Stones, Rob, 2013. "What matters to older people with assisted living needs? A phenomenological analysis of the use and non-use of telehealth and telecare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 86-94.
    6. Völker, Sebastian & Kistemann, Thomas, 2013. "Reprint of: “I'm always entirely happy when I'm here!” Urban blue enhancing human health and well-being in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 141-152.
    7. Ana Rivoir & Katherine Reilly, 2023. "Elder People and Personal Data: New Challenges in Health Platformization," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 101-111.
    8. Kennedy, Aileen & O'gorman, Colm & Lee, Kenneth, 2021. "Have your cake and eat it? Combining structure and agency in management research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112720, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2020. "‘Whole onflow’, the productive event: an articulation through health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    10. Wang, Ke & Cui, Qingming & Xu, Honggang, 2024. "Sensory therapeutic assemblages in tourism: Qi and the health of snowbirds in China," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    11. Buzinde, Christine N. & Yarnal, Careen, 2012. "Therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory: A theoretical approach to medical tourism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 783-787.
    12. Browne, Jennifer & de Leeuw, Evelyne & Gleeson, Deborah & Adams, Karen & Atkinson, Petah & Hayes, Rick, 2017. "A network approach to policy framing: A case study of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 10-18.
    13. Andrews, Gavin J. & Shaw, David, 2010. ""So we started talking about a beach in Barbados": Visualization practices and needle phobia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1804-1810, November.
    14. Greig, Abbie E., 2023. "“This family and the Games are my world”: Conceptualizing the British and European Transplant Games as therapeutic landscapes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    15. Assing Hvidt, Elisabeth & Grønning, Anette & Nisbeth Brøgger, Matilde & Møller, Jane Ege & Fage-Butler, Antoinette, 2021. "Multilevel structures and human agency in relation to email consultations: A strong structuration theory analysis of the Danish general practice setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    16. Laetitia Zeeman & Kay Aranda, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Health and Healthcare Inequalities for People with Intersex Variance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.
    17. Andreassen, Hege K. & Kjekshus, Lars Erik & Tjora, Aksel, 2015. "Survival of the project: A case study of ICT innovation in health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 62-69.
    18. Hoyez, Anne-Cécile, 2007. "The 'world of yoga': The production and reproduction of therapeutic landscapes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 112-124, July.
    19. Li, Yiping & Zhang, Heqing & Zhang, Dian & Abrahams, Richard, 2019. "Mediating urban transition through rural tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 152-164.
    20. Janssen, M. & Stoopendaal, A.M.V. & Putters, K., 2015. "Situated novelty: Introducing a process perspective on the study of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1974-1984.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:264:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620306213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.