‘This wound has spoilt everything’: emotional capital and the experience of surgical site infections

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.

Metabarcoding Is Powerful yet Still Blind: A Comparative Analysis of Morphological and Molecular Surveys of Seagrass Communities

“…Presence/absence information obtained from the molecular datasets were compared to a quantitative morphological dataset containing 322 species collected and taxonomically identified by the IUEM/REBENT network in 2011, in order to appraise the loss or gain of information obtained with each method in terms of alpha and beta diversity estimates. Given the inherent difficulties of morphologically identifying organisms smaller than 1mm, the morphological dataset was generated from animals with body sizes ≥1mm, while the molecular datasets included meiofauna (animals with body sizes < 1mm [ 47 ]) in addition to macrofauna. Therefore, diversity analyses were performed comparing 1) morphological data (≥1mm) with all molecular data (≥ 0.5mm) and 2) morphological data (≥1mm) with molecular data ≥1mm (excluding 0.5mm) for consistency and to better evaluate similarities and differences across survey techniques.…”

Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Practice offers nurses a framework to uncover embodied knowledge of patients living with disabilities or illnesses: A discussion paper

“…Two research teams, in this discussion, demonstrated that a desire to maintain social capital contributed to resistance to asking for professional help (Brown et al., ; Musolino et al., ). Although assessing and addressing health literacy are often cited as a best practice to assist patients to ask for help (Chinn, ), the use of Bourdieu's theory by researchers uncovered a different reason for resistance in seeking help in a population of patients with disability and illness.…”

“…Two researcher teams uncovered that reluctance to seek help was an example of embodied knowledge. Brown, Tanner, and Padley () examined the experience of individuals suffering from a surgical site infection and found that the emotional capital gained from stoicism led patients to avoid seeking the help they needed when they experienced an infection. Musolino, Warin, Wade, and Gilchrist () explored disordered eating in women.…”

Operating room nurses' experiences of skin preparation in connection with orthopaedic surgery: A focus group study

“…States alone, SSIs contribute to patients spending more than 400 000 extra days per year in hospital, at a cost of an additional $10 billion per year (WHO, 2018). SSIs are a major, yet often preventable, threat to patient safety and cause patient suffering, morbidity and mortality (Badia et al, 2017;Brown, Tanner & Padley, 2014;Zimlichman et al, 2013). SSIs associated with orthopaedic surgery may cause physical limitations, additional surgery and a decrease in healthrelated quality of life (Andersson, Bergh, Karlsson, & Nilsson, 2010;Darouiche, 2004).…”