Time for Dying

This work has been written for those who must work with and give care to the dying. The book's discussion is not a simple narrative or description; it is a "rendition of reality," informed by a rather densely woven and fairly abstract theoretical scheme. This scheme evolved gradually during the cour [...]
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This work has been written for those who must work with and give care to the dying. The book's discussion is not a simple narrative or description; it is a "rendition of reality," informed by a rather densely woven and fairly abstract theoretical scheme. This scheme evolved gradually during the course of the author's research. The second audience for this volume is social scientists who are less interested in dying than they are in useful substantive theory. The training of physicians and nurses equips them for the technical aspects of dealing with illness. Medical students learn not to kill patients through error, and to save lives through diagnosis and treatment. But their teachers put little or no emphasis on how to talk with dying patients; how-or whether to disclose an impending death; or even how to approach the subject with families of the dying. Students of nursing are taught how to give nursing care to terminal patients, as well as how to give "post-mortem care." But the psychological aspects of dealing with the dying and their families are virtually absent from training.The process of dying in hospitals is much affected by professional training and codes, and by the particular conditions of work generated by hospitals as places of work. Dying is a social as well as a biological and psychological process. It is not simply leaving life. Unless the individual dies without kin or friends, and in such a way that their death is completely undiscovered their death is recorded. Their dying is inextricably bound up with the life of society.