This essay is a study about how people who work at caring facilities, such as retirement homes, reflect about their role as caregivers for people that are in the last phase of their lives and how they reflect about meeting death at work. The study is conducted through interviews with six people that currently work or have worked at caring facilities. In the essay the informants’ perceptions of a good death are discussed, and what they strive to do when caring for a dying person. The concept of a good death is also discussed in relation to euthanasia. The primary result is that it is evident how the informants use empathy and internalisation as tools to estimate what the caretakers desire. This internalisation leads to a large personal commitment to caring, and can possibly affect the person who provides the care on a personal level. Four of the six informants believe in paranormal phenomena and this is discussed in relation to their work of caring for dying people. Some of the informants report that they feel a responsibility to care well for the person before s/he dies so that they will rest in peace and not start haunting. These primary themes are discussed in relation to Berger & Luckmann’s concept of border situation, and it is shown that the informants have in different ways internalised their experiences from working with death to manage the crisis for the symbolic universe that death entails.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-60794 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Tibblin, Sara |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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