Challenging the focus on technology: A critique of the medical model in a changing health care system

Abstract

The medical model and medical technology have had a pervasive effect on society. Their importance to nursing and to nursing's clients cannot be overstated. This article explores the belief system of medicine and challenges its “germ theory” conceptual underpinnings. Other issues explored are the lack of established efficacy of practice stemming from the medical model; the attendant but unaddressed ethical and iatrogenic questions; the model's destructive effect on health and well-being; and, finally, the economic consequences of the medical model for consumers and the practice of other professional groups. Nurses are urged to consider paradigms that derive from ecological and process orientations to support nursing's concern with health and quality of life.