Between Cultures

Abstract

A hospital is an institution established to pursue one principal primary task: the care and treatment of the sick. In some hospitals, other important tasks - for example, training and research - must also be undertaken. There may at times be conflict about the relative importance of these tasks. Within the hospital, a large number of heterogeneous groups must coexist, communicate and co-operate to achieve the primary task. Each group is composed of individuals. Each individual has his own motivation for belonging to that group and for working within the hospital. The individual's roles within his own group, his relationship with other subgroups and his place within the hospital as a whole are to a considerable degree determined and driven by his unconscious impulses and needs. Within a gynaecological unit the levels of anxiety and other primitive emotions may be particularly high. Here, issues of life, death and sexuality are constantly being confronted. A strong defence system is therefore likely to operate at both an individual and a social level. This may either enhance or hamper the work effort.