Lessons in Politics and Ethics from the Public Hospital
A Portrait from the Inside
1st Edition
Published on 5. March 2026
190 pages
978-1-040-56985-6 (ISBN)
Description
Lessons in Politics and Ethics from the Public Hospital takes us behind the scenes of one of America's last major public hospitals - San Francisco General.
Drawing on his unique position as both an anthropologist and a psychiatric nurse with 26 years of experience, Foster reveals the complex interplay between compassionate care and institutional constraints that defines modern public healthcare. Through vivid storytelling and keen analytical insight, this book illuminates how caregivers navigate the daily challenges of treating over 100,000 patients annually - from trauma victims to the mentally ill, from the indigent to the disenfranchised. He presents an innovative conceptual framework that delineates four essential models for the care process: normalization, care, trauma response, and management. This compelling narrative explores: The delicate balance between compassionate care and fiscal constraints; how caregivers develop an ethics of practice in challenging conditions; the hospital's evolution in response to public health crises; the intersection of societal ills with medical and traumatic illness; the future of public healthcare in America.
Both a deeply human story and a critical analysis of our healthcare system, this book offers an unprecedented look at how a major public hospital functions, adapts, and perseveres in an era of increasing precarity. Essential reading for healthcare professionals, policymakers, anthropologists, and anyone concerned with the future of public health in America.
Drawing on his unique position as both an anthropologist and a psychiatric nurse with 26 years of experience, Foster reveals the complex interplay between compassionate care and institutional constraints that defines modern public healthcare. Through vivid storytelling and keen analytical insight, this book illuminates how caregivers navigate the daily challenges of treating over 100,000 patients annually - from trauma victims to the mentally ill, from the indigent to the disenfranchised. He presents an innovative conceptual framework that delineates four essential models for the care process: normalization, care, trauma response, and management. This compelling narrative explores: The delicate balance between compassionate care and fiscal constraints; how caregivers develop an ethics of practice in challenging conditions; the hospital's evolution in response to public health crises; the intersection of societal ills with medical and traumatic illness; the future of public healthcare in America.
Both a deeply human story and a critical analysis of our healthcare system, this book offers an unprecedented look at how a major public hospital functions, adapts, and perseveres in an era of increasing precarity. Essential reading for healthcare professionals, policymakers, anthropologists, and anyone concerned with the future of public health in America.
Reviews / Votes
"Lessons in Politics and Ethics from the Public Hospital is a masterful and beautifully written ethnographic exploration of the inner workings of one the last and greatest public teaching hospitals in the country-San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. As an anthropologist, nurse and hospital supervisor, Foster has been a quiet observer at the center of the action for almost three decades. Through the processes of care he identifies, Foster uncovers the ways in which the rendering of individual level care to patients is navigated, negotiated, facilitated and at times compromised within its institutional and public contexts. This book provides a powerful and invaluable analysis of the complex dynamics that surround the safety net-the continuities and discontinuities of how care is organized and delivered within a public teaching hospital."~ Leslie Dubbin, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
File size
73,38 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-040-56985-6 (9781040569856)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Stephen William Foster
Lessons in Politics and Ethics from the Public Hospital
A Portrait from the Inside
Book
approx. 03/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€210.90
Not yet published
Person
Stephen William Foster (Ph.D. Anthropology, Princeton; MS Nursing, Yale) taught Anthropology at Smith College and the University of California, Berkeley, and was a clinical instructor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. He worked as nursing supervisor at San Francisco General Hospital for over two decades and is the author of The Past Is Another Country: Representation, Historical Consciousness and Resistance in the Blue Ridge (1988) and Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco, (2006), as well as essays, reviews and poetry.
Content
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter One: History; Chapter Two: Rounds; Chapter Three: Normalization; Chapter Four: Care; Chapter Five: Trauma; Chapter Six: Cost; Chapter Seven: Mind; Chapter Eight: Ethics; References Cited; Index.
