Narrative and Hospice Telling Stories and Finding Meaning

Rachel Jensen

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Rosel, Natalie

Keywords

Hospice, Narrative, Palliative

Area of Concentration

Sociology

Abstract

Since the inclusion of hospice under Medicare's benefits in 1982, hospices in this country have become one of the leaders in palliative care and also one of the primary alternatives to traditional medical care at the end of life. Emerging at the same time has been a growth in the use of narrative to deal with end of life issues. Narrative therapy and illness narrative, just two examples of this trend, are used not only to treat patients and families dealing with death and dying but also to help professionals cope with job stress. The purpose of this study is to examine hospice narratives and to uncover what role narrative plays in the experience of nurses, volunteers, and social workers who work with hospice. Through an in-depth interview process, narratives were gathered and analyzed for structure and content in order to better understand what form these narratives take and what function they have for those who work with hospice. I expected to find that narratives provide a way of giving meaning to the task of dealing with death that can be of benefit to professionals dealing with death and dying outside the hospice environment.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS