Hospices use interdisciplinary teams to aid patients and families as they cope with the imminence of death while helping them achieve a death free of physical and spiritual pain, also known as a good death. This study investigated the communication between hospice team members and their patients regarding spirituality, dying, death and a good death. Through 300 hours of participant observation and interviews with hospice staff at one large not-for-profit hospice in the Southeastern United States this project shows that team members understand patient's spirituality through a religious frame potentially compromising spiritual care. Talk between patients and their care team rarely focuses on what constitutes a good death and team members eventually come to narrate all hospice deaths as good.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USF/oai:scholarcommons.usf.edu:etd-1055 |
Date | 01 May 2009 |
Creators | Tullis Owen, Jillian A |
Publisher | Scholar Commons |
Source Sets | University of South Flordia |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
Rights | default |
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