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"This wound has spoilt everything”: emotional capital and the experience of surgical site infections

Brown, Brian; Tanner, Judith; Padley, Wendy

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Authors

Brian Brown

JUDITH TANNER Judith.Tanner@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor in Adult Nursing

Wendy Padley



Abstract

In this article we explore the experience of suffering from a surgical site infection, a common complication of surgery affecting around 5 per cent of surgical patients, via an interview study of 17 patients in the Midlands in the UK. Despite their prevalence, the experience of surgical site infections has received little attention so far. In spite of the impairment resulting from these iatrogenic problems, participants expressed considerable stoicism and we interpret this via the notion of emotional capital. This idea derives from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Helga Nowotny and Diane Reay and helps us conceptualise the emotional resources accumulated and expended in managing illness and in gaining the most from healthcare services. Participants were frequently at pains not to blame healthcare personnel or hospitals, often discounting the infection’s severity, and attributing it to chance, to ‘germs’ or to their own failure to buy and apply wound care products. The participants’ stoicism was thus partly afforded by their refusal to blame healthcare institutions or personnel. Where anger was described, this was either defused or expressed on behalf of another person. Emotional capital is associated with deflecting the possibility of complaint and sustaining a deferential and grateful position in relation to the healthcare system.

Citation

Brown, B., Tanner, J., & Padley, W. (in press). "This wound has spoilt everything”: emotional capital and the experience of surgical site infections. Sociology of Health and Illness, 36(8), https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12160

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 15, 2014
Online Publication Date Dec 3, 2014
Deposit Date Apr 5, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Sociology of Health and Illness
Print ISSN 0141-9889
Electronic ISSN 1467-9566
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 8
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12160
Keywords healthcare associated infection, emotional capital, Bourdieu, surgical site infection, stoicism
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/741599
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9566.12160

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