Book
The Moral Evaluation of Emergency Department Patients: An Ethnography of Triage Work in Romania (Lexington Books 2023) examines how emergency-care staff assess and prioritize patients under conditions of scarcity. Drawing on fieldwork in two Romanian emergency departments, I show that the subtle and often implicit moral evaluation shapes access to care and can reduce some inequities while reproducing and amplifying others, particularly for marginalized groups such as Roma patients.
The monograph has been reviewed in Symbolic Interaction (Leo McCann) and Sociology of Health & Illness (Bella Wheeler and Catherine Pope), and has made the object of a New Books Network podcast episode hosted by Roland Clark.
“[I]ts detailed
focus on symbolic interaction during the processes of triage is powerful and enlightening.
The standard of scholarly discussion and analysis is very high, and the text
is highly readable and attractive. It is an original and absorbing read. I would thoroughly
recommend it for anyone researching and teaching on healthcare work, social interaction, racism and exclusion, and on professions and street-level bureaucracy.”– Leo McCann
“Based on rich ethnographic data, Wamsiedel offers a perceptive description and insightful analysis of the interaction among triage workers, patients, and companions that shapes the outcome of the classification process in a hospital setting. A superb contribution to medical sociology, symbolic interaction, sociology of morality, and public policy.”
– Cheris Shun-ching Chan
“This ethnography of moral evaluation is as beautifully written as it is thought provoking. Taking emergency medical triage as a strategic case, Marius Wamsiedel peels back multiple layers to uncover the complex forces shaping how frontline emergency medical workers screen and sort their clients. The Moral Evaluation of Emergency Department Patients is a book that could only be written by a careful and theoretically-driven ethnographer like Wamsiedel.”
– Josh Seim
“…[A] detailed, disturbing and simultaneously fascinating description of everyday life and triage work inside Emergency Departments (EDs) in Romania. The book explores patient typologies and labelling practices, offering some novel insights, for example, about how Roma people are dealt with.”
– Bella Wheeler and Catherine Pope