"If we continue, we grow old, and this is how it could be for us,"
writes Renee Rose Shield in her candid and sympathetic account of
life in one American nursing home. Drawing on anthropological
methods and theory to illuminate institutional life, she probes the
sources of the profound sense of unease she found at the place she
calls "The Franklin Nursing Home."For fourteen months Shield
participated in life at a nursing home in the northeastern United
States. She got to know many of the people associated with the
home-doctors, nurses, custodians, kitchen workers, administrators,
social workers, visiting relatives, and above all, the residents,
who emerge in this book as the individuals they are. Sections in
which the residents speak poignantly in their own voices are woven
throughout her richly detailed observations of everyday routines
and events. We see them using guile and humor to get by, struggling
to approach the end of their lives with a measure of autonomy and
dignity, and we meet an often conscientious and caring staff
constrained by conflicting professional perspectives and by the
bureaucratic structure in which they work.There are no villains
here. Rather, Shield explains how conditions in the nursing home
create a difficult and uncomfortable "liminality"-the transition
from an accustomed role to a new one-for the residents. In
characterizing nursing-home existence, she goes beyond Erving
Goffman's classic definition of the "total institution" to show how
residents pass from adulthood to death without the comfort of
ritual or community support common in rites of passage. In addition
to the isolation created by this solitary passage, she finds
restrictions on "reciprocity"-the old people are always recipients
whose need and obligation to repay are seen as unnecessary and
difficult to satisfy. The system encourages their passivity, which
deepens their dependency and helps to explain why they are often
perceived as children. Offering concrete suggestions for improving
the quality of nursing-home life, Uneasy Endings will find a broad
audience among those who work with the aged.
General
Imprint: |
Cornell University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues |
Release date: |
December 1988 |
Authors: |
Renee Rose Shield
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade / Trade
|
Pages: |
264 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8014-9490-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Medicine >
General issues >
Health systems & services >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8014-9490-7 |
Barcode: |
9780801494901 |
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