Death and dying

Question 1

Institutionalising death

Answer 1

• 60% of people die in hospital (but 70% want to die at home)

Question 2

Medicalisation of death

Answer 2

• death as failure
• curative endeavour of biomedicine
• prolonging life at any cost
• death as natural part of our life challenged

Question 3

Glaser and strauss (1965) awareness of dying

Answer 3

• observational study of interactions between dying people, relatives and staff in USA hospitals
• identified 4 awareness contexts

Question 4

What are the 4 awareness contexts glaser and strauss 1965 identified?

Answer 4

1. closed awareness
2. suspicion awareness
3. mutual pretence
4. open awareness

Question 5

Social death

Answer 5

• when people die in social and interpersonal terms before their actual biological death
• lonely, impersonal death

Question 6

Good death

Answer 6

• pallative care became a specialty aiming to demedicalise death
• a reaction against the impersonal medical city

Question 7

Death the hospice way

Answer 7

• open awareness, compassion, honesty
• multi-disciplinary teams
• emotion and relationships - modelled on a family approach
• holistic care