Beyond the Reach of Palliative Care

A Qualitative Study of Patient and Public Experiences and Anticipation of Death and Dying

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4645299
AutoresKatina Pollock (0000-0002-6836-8595, University of Nottingham, autor de correspondencia), Glenys Caswell (0000-0002-8246-8189, University of Nottingham), Nicola Turner (0000-0002-0870-8324, University of Nottingham), Eleanor Wilson (0000-0003-0419-5901, University of Nottingham)
Año2024
Volumen34
Número14
Páginas1428-1441
Fecha de publicación2024-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/10497323241246705
PMID38904368
OpenAlexW4399888908
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas55

The demands and costs of health care resulting from increasingly ageing populations have become a major public health issue in the United Kingdom and other industrially developed nations. Concern with cost containment and shortage of resources has prompted a progressive shift in responsibility from state provision of care to individual patients and their families, and from the institutional setting of the hospital to the domestic home. Under the guise of choice and patient centredness, end-of-life care is framed within a discourse of the 'good death': free from distress and discomfort and accompanied by significant others in the preferred place, usually assumed to be home. The promotion of the 'good death' as a technical accomplishment enabled by pre-emptive discussion and advance care planning has sidelined recognition of the nature and significance of the pain and suffering involved in the experience of dying. There has been little research into the disparity between policy and professional assumptions and the lived reality of end of life. In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study of how terminally ill patients, bereaved family members, and members of the public understand, anticipate, and experience death and dying. These findings contribute to an important and timely critique of the normative idealisation of death and dying in health policy and practice, and the need to attend closely to the real-world experiences of patients and the public as a prerequisite for identifying and remedying widespread shortcomings in end-of-life care

End-of-life care · Health care · Normative · Palliative care · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Qualitative research · Sociology · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Patient Dignity and Privacy · Psychology