{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,30]],"date-time":"2025-07-30T16:32:23Z","timestamp":1753893143517,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]],"date-time":"2022-10-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665014400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Sociol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Communication patterns between doctors, nurses and patients determine both the efficiency of healthcare delivery, and the job satisfaction of healthcare workers. Job satisfaction is important to ensure retention of the doctor and nurse populations. Incidents of assault against physicians and nurses from relatives and family members of patients have become frequent both in the pre-pandemic and COVID-19 eras. Along with appreciation for frontline healthcare workers serving during the pandemic, there is physical violence directed at them for failing to salvage infected patients. Using Bourdieu's concepts of social space, forms of capital, and habitus this paper endeavors to theorize some of the interaction patterns observed in doctor-patient, nurse-patient, and doctor-nurse encounters that contribute to the waning of the relationship between healthcare workers and wider society as observed in West Bengal, India. Primary empirical data was collected through in-person, in-depth semi-structured interviews with both open and closed-ended questions conducted throughout 2018 across 5 government hospitals in Kolkata (major metropolitan center) and 1 hospital in a suburban area with population 100,000. The respondents consisted of 51 nurses (100% women), 20 doctors (5% women), and 33 patients (33.3% women) recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. Social space analysis indicated that the cumulative patient social capital is comparable to that of the doctors, despite the doctor's higher levels of cultural and economic capital because of the high patient to doctor ratio. The patient population can thus concentrate and delegate their social capital to select agents leading to violence against healthcare workers. Through this analysis, two doctors' habitus were postulated, along with a nurse and a patient habitus. The first doctor habitus is structured by the idealized status of doctors and the second habitus is structured by their resource-limited working conditions. The nurse habitus is structured by the desire for economic empowerment along with dutifully providing care as instructed. The patient habitus is structured by the need to balance healthcare expenditures with their limited financial means. This paper establishes how the habitus of the agents and the politics of healthcare interact to exacerbate extant tensions between healthcare workers and the population they care for.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2022.938734","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]],"date-time":"2022-10-06T07:09:47Z","timestamp":1665040187000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Harnessing Bourdieu's social theory to understand the deteriorating doctor-patient-nurse relationship in West Bengal government hospitals"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Tannistha","family":"Sarkar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"AlmeidaR.\n            BenreyJ.\n            FreimarkJ.\n            HouckM.\n            LiuL.\n            MessingM.\n          The Role of Government in the Indian Hospital System2017"},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"Doctors Details | Page 3 | AMRI Hospitals2020"},{"key":"B3","unstructured":"Workplace violence against resident doctors in a tertiary care hospital in Delhi344348\n            AnandT.\n            GroverS.\n            KumarR.\n            KumarM.\n            IngleG. K.\n          28327484Natl. Med. J. India292016"},{"key":"B4","unstructured":"ArvindT.\n            AhamedA. S. N.\n          2016"},{"key":"B5","unstructured":"BalakrishnanR.\n          Manipal group in talks to buy AMRI from Emami for up to Rs 1,000 crore - The Economic Times2018"},{"key":"B6","unstructured":"BarmanA.\n          Left rules West Bengal for 34 years and ruins the state - The Economic Times. The Economic Times2011"},{"key":"B7","unstructured":"BasavarajuC.\n          Reservation under the constitution of India: Issues and Perspectives. Journal of the Indian Law Institute 51, 267\u20132742009"},{"key":"B8","unstructured":"BasuK.\n          Kolkata doctors' strike: Mamata Banerjee writes fresh letter to doctors, assures necessary action. India Today"},{"key":"B9","unstructured":"BasuK.\n          Protests erupt across state after assault on NRS doctors. Telegraph India"},{"key":"B10","unstructured":"BeauchampZ.\n          India's ruling party lost a key election. It's worrying that it even stood a chance. Vox2021"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.5750\/ijpcm.v3i1.381","article-title":"The manifestation of job satisfaction in doctor-patient communication: a ten-country European study","volume":"3","author":"Bensing","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Person-Centred Med."},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"231","DOI":"10.1177\/0019464614525726","article-title":"The genesis of hospital medicine in India: The Calcutta Medical College (CMC) and the emergence of a new medical epistemology","volume":"51","author":"Bhattacharya","year":"2014","journal-title":"Indian Econ. Soc. History Rev."},{"key":"B13","unstructured":"BoseM.\n          Bengal's Healthcare Has Become Dysfunctional. Here's How We Can Fix It. The Wire2019"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.15171\/ijhpm.2015.05","article-title":"Inequity in hospitalization care: a study on utilization of healthcare services in West Bengal, India","volume":"4","author":"Bose","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Health Policy Manag."},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s12913-018-3633-5","article-title":"Health financing strategies to reduce out-of-pocket burden in India: a comparative study of three states","volume":"18","author":"Bose","year":"2018","journal-title":"BMC Health Serv Res"},{"journal-title":"Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste","year":"1984","author":"Bourdieu","key":"B16"},{"key":"B17","first-page":"241","article-title":"\u201cThe Forms of Capital,\u201d","author":"Bourdieu","year":"1986","journal-title":"Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education."},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.2307\/202060","article-title":"Social space and symbolic power","volume":"7","author":"Bourdieu","year":"1989","journal-title":"Sociol. Theory"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9781503621558","author":"Bourdieu","year":"","journal-title":"In Other Words: Essays Toward a Reflexive Sociology"},{"journal-title":"The Logic of Practice","year":"","author":"Bourdieu","key":"B20"},{"journal-title":"Pascalian Meditations","year":"2000","author":"Bourdieu","key":"B21"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"581","DOI":"10.1177\/1048291117732301","article-title":"Assaulted and unheard: violence against healthcare staff","volume":"27","author":"Brophy","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Environ. Occupat. Health Policy"},{"key":"B23","unstructured":"West Bengal Population Sex Ratio in West Bengal Literacy rate data 2011-2021. West Bengal Population 2011 - 20212011"},{"key":"B24","unstructured":"Health care in West Bengal: what is happening?50215023\n            ChakrabortyA.\n            MukherjeeS.\n          27590732Econ. Polit. Weekly382003"},{"key":"B25","unstructured":"ChakrabortyS.\n          16468275Swasthya Sathi will now include Bengal's entire population: Mamata2020"},{"key":"B26","unstructured":"ChatterjeeS.\n          Bidhan Chandra Roy: A legendary figure. Times of India Blog2019"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1020","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-019-7342-8","article-title":"Do poor people in the poorer states pay more for healthcare in India?","volume":"19","author":"Dash","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1186\/s12245-020-00290-0","article-title":"A qualitative study of workplace violence among healthcare providers in emergency departments in India","volume":"13","author":"Davey","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Emerg. Med."},{"key":"B29","unstructured":"DhillonA.\n          Doctors in India strike over violent attacks by patients' families. the Guardian2019"},{"key":"B30","unstructured":"Ellis-PetersenH.\n            RahmanS. A.\n          Indian doctors being evicted from homes over coronavirus fears. the Guardian2020"},{"key":"B31","unstructured":"Economic Survey 2018: Over 1000% difference in medical test prices across cities: Will govt standardise rates? - The Economic Times. Economic Times2018"},{"key":"B32","unstructured":"Assault on NRS doctors: Attempt to murder charge slapped on patient's kin. The Indian Express2019"},{"key":"B33","article-title":"Violence against nurses and its impact on stress and productivity","author":"Gates","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nurs. Econ."},{"key":"B34","first-page":"52","article-title":"Nursing Shortage in India with special reference to International Migration of Nurses","volume":"6","author":"Gill","year":"2011","journal-title":"Soc. Med."},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"541","DOI":"10.1111\/bioe.12474","article-title":"Solidarity and the problem of structural injustice in healthcare","volume":"32","author":"Gould","year":"2018","journal-title":"Bioethics"},{"key":"B36","unstructured":"Invest in West Bengal2010"},{"key":"B37","unstructured":"Budget Publication Number 17 - Detailed Demand for Grants 2019 - 2020. Kolkata, West Bengal, India2019"},{"key":"B38","unstructured":"2020"},{"key":"B39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1360","DOI":"10.1086\/225469","article-title":"The strength of weak ties","volume":"78","author":"Granovetter","year":"1973","journal-title":"Am. J. Sociol"},{"key":"B40","unstructured":"GuptaS.\n          Mamata, Muslims and paribartan. The Hindu2016"},{"key":"B41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"553","DOI":"10.1891\/0886-6708.25.4.553","article-title":"Preventing interpersonal violence in emergency departments: practical applications of criminology theory","volume":"25","author":"Henson","year":"2010","journal-title":"Violence Vict"},{"key":"B42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/9781405165518.wbeosr078","article-title":"\u201cRole Theory,\u201d","author":"Hindin","year":"2007","journal-title":"The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Sociology"},{"key":"B43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2515","DOI":"10.14260\/jemds\/2020\/547","article-title":"Workplace violence against healthcare professionals - a cross-sectional study to assess the current scenario in Chennai City, India","volume":"9","author":"Kesavan","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Evol. Med. Dent. Sci."},{"key":"B44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e033404","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2019-033404","article-title":"Workplace violence among prehospital care providers in India: a cross-sectional study","volume":"9","author":"Lindquist","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"journal-title":"A Comparison of the Health Systems in China and India","year":"2008","author":"Ma","key":"B45"},{"key":"B46","unstructured":"Government of India. MOSPI Gross State Domestic Product. New Delhi, India2020"},{"journal-title":"Perceptions and Interactions in a Medical Setting: A Sociological Study of a Women's Hospital","year":"1996","author":"Minocha","key":"B47"},{"key":"B48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"99","DOI":"10.1186\/s12939-019-1001-7","article-title":"Out-of-pocket expenditure and distress financing on institutional delivery in India","volume":"18","author":"Mishra","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Equity Health"},{"key":"B49","unstructured":"MukherjeeS.\n          Deep Dive | The long trail of political violence in West Bengal. India Today2020"},{"key":"B50","unstructured":"Conversion rates - Purchasing power parities (PPP) - OECD Data. theOECD2012"},{"key":"B51","unstructured":"Health equipment - Hospital beds - OECD Data. theOECD2019"},{"key":"B52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"142","DOI":"10.4103\/0970-0218.99907","article-title":"Universal health insurance in India: ensuring equity, efficiency, and quality","volume":"37","author":"Prinja","year":"2012","journal-title":"Indian J. Commun. Med."},{"key":"B53","unstructured":"Mamata Banerjee appreciats successful implementation of Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana in Bengal - The Economic Times. The Economic Times2015"},{"key":"B54","unstructured":"Don't want TMC in anti-BJP grouping because of strong anti-incumbency against it: Sitaram Yechury - The Economic Times. The Economic Times"},{"key":"B55","unstructured":"Health infrastructure improved considerably in West Bengal: Mamata - The Economic Times"},{"key":"B56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.1177\/001946461004800103","article-title":"The historical anatomy of a contact zone: Calcutta in the eighteenth century","volume":"48","author":"Raj","year":"2011","journal-title":"Indian Econ. Soc. History Rev."},{"key":"B57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv1dwq1m3","author":"Reed-Danahay","year":"2020","journal-title":"Bourdieu and Social Space: Mobilities, Trajectories, Emplacements"},{"key":"B58","unstructured":"RoyA.\n          Indians clap, ring bells to cheer emergency workers during coronavirus lockdown. Reuters2020"},{"key":"B59","unstructured":"Public-private partnership and user fees in healthcare: evidence from West Bengal748\n            RoyB.\n            GuptaS.\n          Econ. Political Weekly462011"},{"key":"B60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2381","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(15)01231-3","article-title":"India still struggles with rural doctor shortages","volume":"386","author":"Sharma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B61","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.1093\/heapol\/czt095","article-title":"What explains regulatory failure? Analysing the architecture of health care regulation in two Indian states","volume":"30","author":"Sheikh","year":"2015","journal-title":"Health Policy Plan."},{"key":"B62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"470","DOI":"10.1016\/j.socnet.2013.05.004","article-title":"Weak ties and the core discussion network: Why people regularly discuss important matters with unimportant alters","volume":"35","author":"Small","year":"2013","journal-title":"Soc. Netw."},{"key":"B63","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e032921","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2019-032921","article-title":"Knowing what the patient wants: a hospital ethnography studying physician culture in shared decision making in the Netherlands","volume":"10","author":"Spinnewijn","year":"2020","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"key":"B64","unstructured":"Consequences of hospital bill2017"},{"key":"B65","unstructured":"NRS Medical College junior doctors assaulted2019"},{"key":"B66","unstructured":"ThakurJ.\n          Private hospitals neglected comorbid conditions: Mamata Banerjee. Hindustan Times2020"},{"key":"B67","unstructured":"Male nurses perceived to be women patient-unfriendly - Times of India. The Times of India2016"},{"key":"B68","unstructured":"VishwanathA.\n          Explained: How horizontal, vertical quotas work; what Supreme Court said. The Indian Express2021"},{"key":"B69","unstructured":"Medical doctors (per 10 000 population)2021"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Sociology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fsoc.2022.938734\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]],"date-time":"2022-10-06T07:10:10Z","timestamp":1665040210000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fsoc.2022.938734\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]]},"references-count":69,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fsoc.2022.938734"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fsoc.2022.938734","relation":{},"ISSN":["2297-7775"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2297-7775"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]]},"article-number":"938734"}}