This book has been written for those who must work with and give
care to the dying. Our discussion is not simple narrative or
description; it is a "rendition of reality," informed by a rather
densely woven and fairly abstract theoretical scheme. This scheme
evolved gradually during the course of our research. The second
audience for this volume is social scientists who are less
interested in dying than they are in useful substantive theory. Our
central concern is with the temporal aspects of work. The theory
presented here may be useful to social scientists interested in
areas far removed from health, medicine, or hospitals. The training
of physicians and nurses equips them for the technical aspects of
dealing with illness. Medical students learn not to kill patients
through error, and to save lives through diagnosis and treatment.
But their teachers put little or no emphasis on how to talk with
dying patients; how-or whether-to disclose an impending death; or
even how to approach the subject with the wives, husbands,
children, and parents of the dying. Students of nursing are taught
how to give nursing care to terminal patients, as well as how to
give "post-mortem care." But the psychological aspects of dealing
with the dying and their families are virtually absent from
training. Although physicians and nurses are highly skilled at
handling the bodies of terminal patients, their behavior to them
otherwise is actually outside the province of professional
standards. Much, if not most, nontechnical conduct toward, and in
the presence of, dying patients and their families is profoundly
influenced by "common sense" assumptions, essentially untouched by
professional or even rational considerations or by current
advancement in social-psychological knowledge. The process of dying
in hospitals is much affected by professional training and codes,
and by the particular conditions of work generated by hospitals as
places of work. A third important consideration in interpreting
dying as a temporal process is that dying is a social as well as a
biological and psychological process. The term "social" underlines
that the dying person is not simply leaving life. Unless he dies
without kin or friends, and in such a way that his death is
completely undiscovered his death is recorded. His dying is
inextricably bound up with the life of society, however
insignificant his particular life may have been or how small the
impact his death makes upon its future course. This aspect of dying
is treated in relationship to what the authors call "status
passage." "Time for Dying" is an illumination of the "temporal
features of dying in hospitals"uas related both to the work of
hospital personnel and to dying itself as a social process. "Barney
G. Glaser" is the founder of the Grounded Theory Institute in Mill
Valley, California, and has also been a research sociologist at the
University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. He is the
author or coauthor of several books, including "The Grounded Theory
Perspective II and Experts versus Laymen: A Study of the Patsy and
the Subcontractor," published by Aldine Transaction. "Anselm L.
Strauss" (1916-1996) was emeritus professor of sociology at the
University of California, San Francisco. He was the author of
numerous books, including "Professions, Work and Careers, Mirrors
and Masks: The Search for Identity, and Creating Sociological
Awareness: Collective Images and Symbolic Representations, " all
published in new editions by Transaction.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
