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1 – 10 of over 2000We wish to die peacefully in a manner suited to our values and taste. We also wish to be attended at our deathbed by people whom we love and try to find meaning in death. Here, I…
Abstract
We wish to die peacefully in a manner suited to our values and taste. We also wish to be attended at our deathbed by people whom we love and try to find meaning in death. Here, I evaluate nursing of dying patients with regard to alienation of life and death from our daily living, problems concerning the judgment of death, how to die in a manner that fits the person's values and taste, and nursing for spiritual healing with traditional views of life and death, and cultural background of attending dying persons of the Japanese.
Lucinda Brabbins, Nima Moghaddam and David Dawson
Background: Quality of life is a core concern for cancer patients, which can be negatively affected by illness-related death anxiety; yet understanding of how to appropriately…
Abstract
Background: Quality of life is a core concern for cancer patients, which can be negatively affected by illness-related death anxiety; yet understanding of how to appropriately target psycho-oncological interventions remains lacking. We aimed to explore experiential acceptance in cancer patients, and whether acceptance – as an alternative to avoidant coping – was related to and predictive of better quality of life and death anxiety outcomes.
Methods: We used a longitudinal, quantitative design with a follow-up after three months. Seventy-two participants completed a questionnaire-battery measuring illness appraisals, acceptance and non-acceptance coping-styles, quality of life, and death anxiety; 31 participants repeated the battery after three months.
Results: Acceptance was an independent explanatory and predictive variable for quality of life and death anxiety, in the direction of psychological health. Acceptance had greater explanatory power for outcomes than either cancer appraisals or avoidant response styles. Avoidant response styles were associated with greater death anxiety and poorer quality of life.
Conclusions: The findings support the role of an accepting response-style in favourable psychological outcomes, identifying a possible target for future psychological intervention. Response styles that might be encouraged in other therapies, such as active coping, planning, and positive reframing, were not associated with beneficial outcomes.
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Maureen Alice Flynn and Niamh M. Brennan
The paper examines interviewee insights into accountability for clinical governance in high-consequence, life-and-death hospital settings. The analysis draws on the distinction…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines interviewee insights into accountability for clinical governance in high-consequence, life-and-death hospital settings. The analysis draws on the distinction between formal “imposed accountability” and front-line “felt accountability”. From these insights, the paper introduces an emergent concept, “grounded accountability”.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews are conducted with 41 clinicians, managers and governors in two large academic hospitals. The authors ask interviewees to recall a critical clinical incident as a focus for elucidating their experiences of and observation on the practice of accountability.
Findings
Accountability emerges from the front-line, on-the-ground. Together, clinicians, managers and governors co-construct accountability. Less attention is paid to cost, blame, legal processes or personal reputation. Money and other accountability assumptions in business do not always apply in a hospital setting.
Originality/value
The authors propose the concept of co-constructed “grounded accountability” comprising interrelationships between the concept’s three constituent themes of front-line staff’s felt accountability, along with grounded engagement by managers/governors, supported by a culture of openness.
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Charlotte Kroløkke, Thomas Søbirk Petersen, Janne Rothmar Herrmann, Anna Sofie Bach, Stine Willum Adrian, Rune Klingenberg and Michael Nebeling Petersen
Fuzhan F. Parhizgar, Suzan S. Parhizgar and Kamal Dean Parhizgar
The prime objective of this article is related to dignified human beings as patients in clinical interventions. The main attention of such a perception focuses on observance of…
Abstract
Purpose
The prime objective of this article is related to dignified human beings as patients in clinical interventions. The main attention of such a perception focuses on observance of humaneness in relationships among physicians, patients, family members, and community at large. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines in depth, analytical deliberations concerning traditional and modern values of medical care and healthcare knowledge and practices.
Findings
Therefore, we need to attest that we live in a global village in which multicultural people must live side‐by‐side, if they desire to peacefully coexist. We must assume that human values are based upon general agreements about ethical issues. Such agreements rely on a framework of equitable treatments of all mankind. Medical ethics is about committed codes and oaths of professional medical authorities to protect natural rights, human rights, and civil rights of patients in clinical interventions. It strives to achieve professional objectives to facilitate patients to be recovered from pain and suffering and regain their health in order to live the good life.
Practical implications
This paper is devoted to define the notions relevant to the philosophies of quality of life, ethical, and moral problems concerning clinical medicine, and preventive care systems. It analyzes certain ethical and moral distinctions between medical care and healthcare services, and indicates that cautions should be observed in discussing these notions within the context of preventive care and clinical care systems.
Originality/value
This paper explores the following questions: What is the meaning of a psychosomatic normal life? How life should be respected? What are the meta‐medical practices? What should be the logical and philosophical foundations for medical care and healthcare ethics? How should clinicians and practitioners respect not only cost‐benefit analysis but also consider cost‐effectiveness analysis in providing and promoting medical care and healthcare services for patients?
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Ines Testoni, Salvatore Russotto, Adriano Zamperini and Diego De Leo
This qualitative research explores the relationship between religiosity, suicide thoughts and drug abuse among 55 homeless people, interviewed with interpretative phenomenological…
Abstract
This qualitative research explores the relationship between religiosity, suicide thoughts and drug abuse among 55 homeless people, interviewed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analyzing the thematic structure of the participants' narrations, important main themes appeared in order to avoid suicide, among which family, the certainty of finding a solution and the will to live. However, the suicide ideation inheres in about 30% of participants, almost all believers, addicted and/or alcoholics. Results suggest that religiosity and meaning of death neither prevent from substances abuse and alcoholism, nor is a protective factor against suicide ideation. Meanings of life are the most important reasons for living, and when they are definitively considered unworkable, alcohol and drug help to endure life in the street. A specific model is discussed.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore how financial risk is managed and commercial decisions are made within a successful UK livestock market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how financial risk is managed and commercial decisions are made within a successful UK livestock market.
Design/methodology/approach
An autoethnographic approach is used, in which the researcher is both active participant and reflective observer.
Findings
In contrast to “best practice” described in management texts, commercial risk management and financial decision making in this community are successfully guided by rumour.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is limited to the extent that one believes in the validity of autoethnography, however, it is argued that these findings are a reflection of the wider nature of the agricultural community, immersed as it is in life and death, and that this culture is significantly different to that commonly addressed by textbooks.
Practical implications
This paper highlights a distinction between the tenets of the western world as addressed in textbooks and the agricultural community that exists alongside, and it suggests that following best practice might not lead to success if that best practice is ignorant of the culture in which it is rooted.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence that the tenets of the rural community are at odds with those of sanitised western management and that successful management of financial risk is culture specific. It questions why such differences exist and furthers debate about the influence of “our common neglect of death”.
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This chapter is a reflection on the digital mediation of death and dying in the COVID-19 pandemic from a critical political economy perspective. It asks: What is the role of the…
Abstract
This chapter is a reflection on the digital mediation of death and dying in the COVID-19 pandemic from a critical political economy perspective. It asks: What is the role of the communication of death and dying in capitalist society? How has communication with dying loved ones changed in the COVID-19 pandemic? What roles have digital technologies and capitalism played in this context?
Building on foundational theoretical insights into the role of death and dying in capitalism, this essay presents some empirical studies of death and dying in society and the COVID-19 pandemic and interprets their findings from a Communication Studies perspective.
In capitalist societies, death and dying are taboo topics and are hidden, invisible and institutionalised. The COVID-19 pandemic had contradictory effects on the role of death in society. It is a human, cultural and societal universal that humans want to die in company with loved ones. The presented empirical studies confirm the insights of the philosophers Kwasi Wiredu and Jürgen Habermas that humans are fundamentally social and communicative beings from the cradle to the grave. The wish to die in a social manner derives from humans' social and communicative nature. In capitalism, the reality of dying diverges from the ideal of dying. Capitalism hides, individualises, makes invisible and institutionalises death and dying.
The analysed studies confirm the insights of the philosophers Kwasi Wiredu and Jürgen Habermas that humans are fundamentally social and communicative beings from the cradle to the grave. Building and going beyond the works of the political theorist and philosopher Achille Mbembe and the philosopher and sociologist Erich Fromm, the essay introduces the notion of capitalist necropower. It is shown how the COVID-19 pandemic in many cases destroyed the social and communicative nature of human beings and how capitalist necropower created unnecessary surplus deaths and formed the context of the digital mediation of communication with dying loved ones in the pandemic.
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Duncan Light and Preslava Ivanova
This paper aims to investigate the visitor experience at a “lightest” dark tourism attraction, focusing on issues of thanatopsis and mortality mediation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the visitor experience at a “lightest” dark tourism attraction, focusing on issues of thanatopsis and mortality mediation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 visitors to a “Dungeon”-style attraction in the UK (a site of “lightest” dark tourism). The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis; four themes were identified.
Findings
Reflection on, and contemplation of, issues of life and death was a common (but not universal) component of the visitor experience. Four forms of such reflection were apparent: considering absent/present death; thanatopsis (reflection on the self’s inevitable mortality); reflecting on the nature of death and dying in the past; and enjoyment of the opportunity to engage with death without fear in the safe setting of a visitor attraction. Some visitors also reflected on issues of individual and collective morality, in both past and present.
Research limitations/implications
“Lightest” dark tourism is not necessarily about shallow experiences. Instead, many visitors are active agents, engaged in acts of making meaning about issues of death and life. This calls for a more sophisticated conceptualisation of such visitors.
Originality/value
The mortality mediation model is widely accepted as a way of explaining the experience of visiting places of death but has rarely been subject to empirical scrutiny. This is one of few studies to explore in detail issues of mortality mediation and thanatopsis in the context of “lightest” dark tourism.
设计/方法/途径
数据是通过对 24 名英国“地牢”式景点(“最轻微”黑色旅游景点)游客的半结构化访谈收集的。访谈采用主题分析法进行分析并确定了 4 个主题。
目的
本文是对“最轻微”黑暗旅游景点的游客体验的实证调查,重点关注死亡冥想和死亡临界问题。
调查结果
对生死问题的反思和思考是游客体验的一个常见(但不普遍适用)组成部分。这种反思的四种形式是显而易见的:缺席/现有的死亡认知; 死亡冥想(对自我不可避免的死亡的反思);反思死亡的本质和过去的死亡;并享受在安全的旅游景点环境中毫无畏惧地与死亡打交道的机会。一些参观者还反思了过去和现在的个人和集体道德问题。
研究限制/影响
“最轻微”的黑暗旅游不一定是肤浅的体验。相反,许多访客是积极的中间人,从事为生死问题赋予意义的行为。这需要对此类访问者进行更复杂的概念化理解。
原创性/价值
死亡临界/调节模型作为一种解释访问死亡地的体验的方式被广泛接受,但很少通过经验研究来验证。这是在“最轻微”黑暗旅游背景下详细探讨死亡临界和死亡问题的少数研究之一。
Diseño / metodología / enfoque
Los datos se recopilaron a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas con 24 visitantes a un calabozo, un estilo de atracción turística en el Reino Unido (se diseña como un lugar de turismo oscuro "más ligero"). Las entrevistas se analizaron mediante análisis temático; Se identificaron 4 temas.
Propósito
Este artículo es una investigación empírica de la experiencia del visitante en una atracción turística oscura "más ligera", que se centra en cuestiones de tanatopsis y mediación de la mortalidad.
Resultados
La reflexión y la contemplación de cuestiones de la vida, así como la muerte, plantean un componente común (pero no universal) en la experiencia del visitante. Se identificaron, aparentemente, cuatro formas de reflexión: considerar la muerte presente/ausente; tanatopsis (reflexión sobre la inevitable mortalidad del yo); reflexionar sobre la naturaleza de la muerte y morir en el pasado y disfrute de la oportunidad de relacionarse con la muerte sin miedo a un entorno seguro, dentro de una atracción turística. Algunos visitantes también reflexionaron sobre cuestiones de moralidad individual y colectiva, tanto del pasado como del presente.
Limitaciones / implicaciones de la investigación
El turismo oscuro "más ligero", no se trata necesariamente de experiencias superficiales. En cambio, muchos visitantes son agentes activos, involucrados en actos de dar sentido a los problemas de la muerte y la vida. Esto requiere una conceptualización más sofisticada de dichos visitantes.
Originalidad / valor
El modelo de mediación de la mortalidad es ampliamente aceptado, como una forma de explicar la experiencia de visitar lugares de muerte, pero rara vez ha sido objeto de un análisis empírico. Este es uno de los pocos estudios que explora en detalle cuestiones de mediación de la mortalidad y tanatopsis en el contexto del turismo oscuro "más ligero".
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This chapter explores the radical potentials of mycelic practice. Mycelium is the root network of mushrooms, consisting of spores, which seeks nourishment in their surroundings…
Abstract
This chapter explores the radical potentials of mycelic practice. Mycelium is the root network of mushrooms, consisting of spores, which seeks nourishment in their surroundings, constantly spreading, showing ability to interpret its environmental circumstances and distributing nourishment to the spores needing it the most. Each spore develops individual and flexible characteristics, but always in contact with the communal mycelic body. The chapter unpacks the four phases of mycelic life and death: expansion, cannibalism, heksering formation and communication. Mycelic practice, as expansive and cannibalistic, invites us to surpass our individuality, reject the ego and any given dominant order of, say, Western civilisation, such as individual ownership or capitalist logics of growth. Death is part of life. Death sustains life. Just as closeness or intimacy involves awareness of absence understood as that which is not visibly present. Each of the phases in the life and death of mycelium points towards particular strategies and ways of working: politics, organising, methods, writing and citing. Each phase contributes to the critique disrupting the hegemonic political orders.
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