Good enough death: autonomy and choice in Australian palliative care

McNamara, Beverley

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.10.042

Cited by 153 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

145

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…There has been criticism of attempts to establish what could be considered a good death due to the vast diversity of individual values and preferences and a growing consensus that a good death is something that cannot be defined beforehand in general terms and is not the same for everyone (Goldsteen et al, 2006, McNamara, 2004. We acknowledge the above (and many other) discussions on this concept and also the claim by Scarre (2012) that the expression "good death" is necessarily an oxymoron.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Ethical dilemmas faced by hospice nurses when administering palliative sedation to patients with terminal cancer

Vries

Plaskota

2016

Pall Supp Care

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Palliative sedation is a method of symptom management frequently used in hospices to treat uncontrolled symptoms at the end of life. There is a substantial body of literature on this subject; however, there has been little research into the experiences of hospice nurses when administering palliative sedation in an attempt to manage the terminal restlessness experienced by cancer patients.Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of seven hospice nurses who had cared for at least one patient who had undergone palliative sedation within the past year in a hospice in the south of England in the United Kingdom. A phenomenological approach and Colaizzi's stages of analysis were employed to develop themes from the data.Results: Facilitating a "peaceful death" was the primary goal of the nurses, where through the administration of palliative sedation they sought to enable and support patients to be "comfortable," "relaxed," and "calm" at the terminal stage of their illness. Ethical dilemmas related to decision making were a factor in achieving this. These were: medication decisions, "juggling the drugs," "causing the death," sedating young people, the family "requesting" sedation, and believing that hospice is a place where death is hastened.Significance of results: Hospice nurses in the U.K. frequently encounter ethical and emotional dilemmas when administering palliative sedation. Making such decisions about using palliative sedation causes general discomfort for them. Undertaking this aspect of care requires confidence and competence on the part of nurses, and working within a supportive hospice team is of fundamental importance in supporting this practice.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Ethical dilemmas faced by hospice nurses when administering palliative sedation to patients with terminal cancer

Vries

Plaskota

2016

Pall Supp Care

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…36 It thus reflects the core components of a particular professional ideology and commitment to the nature and achievement for all patients of a particular construct of 'the good death'. [37][38][39][40] This involves the excellent control of symptoms within a holistic approach to care, which acknowledges death as a natural, rather than a pathological, process. It incorporates a commitment to open awareness and communication about dying between all participants: patient, family and professionals.…”

Section: Talking About Death and Dying: Developing A Public Conversationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Care and communication between health professionals and patients affected by severe or chronic illness in community care settings: a qualitative study of care at the end of life

Pollock

Wilson

2015

Health Serv Deliv Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

(2015) Care and communication between health professionals and patients affected by severe or chronic illness in community settings: a qualitative study of care at the end of life. Health Services Delivery and Research, 3 (31). ISSN 2050-4349 Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35464/2/FullReport-hsdr03310.pdf Copyright and reuse:The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial licence and may be reused according to the conditions of the licence. For more details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.For more information, please contact eprints@nottingham.ac.uk This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (www.publicationethics.org/). HEALTH SERVICES AND DELIVERY RESEARCHEditorial contact: nihredit@southampton.ac.ukThe full HS&DR archive is freely available to view online at www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr. Print-on-demand copies can be purchased from the report pages of the NIHR Journals Library website: www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk Criteria for inclusion in the Health Services and Delivery Research journalReports are published in Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) if (1) they have resulted from work for the HS&DR programme or programmes which preceded the HS&DR programme, and (2) they are of a sufficiently high scientific quality as assessed by the reviewers and editors. HS&DR programmeThe Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) programme, part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), was established to fund a broad range of research. It combines the strengths and contributions of two previous NIHR research programmes: the Health Services Research (HSR) programme and the Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) programme, which were merged in January 2012.The HS&DR programme aims to produce rigorous and relevant evidence on the quality, access and organisation of health services including costs and outcomes, as well as research on implementation. The programme will enhance the strategic focus on research that matters to the NHS and is keen to support ambitious evaluative research to improve health services.For more information about the HS&DR programme please visit the website: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/hsdr This reportThe research reported in this issue of the journal was funded by the HS&DR programme or one of its preceding programmes as project number 10/2002/23. The contractual start date was in April 2012. The final report began...

show abstract

“…Furthermore, our case studies show that negotiations about 'difference' in practices of 'doing death' are not a simple matter of clearly definable cultural or migrant backgrounds, but a matter of plurality and individual autonomy in contemporary societies (see also McNamara 2004). Drawing a clear line between diversities within and beyond societies -simply put, between non-migrants and migrants -is a complex thing, and lines of collision do not stick to clear-cut non-migrant or migrant specific reference systems, but become blurred and multifaceted in everyday practice.…”

Section: The Art Of Endurance In Challenged 'Death Work'mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Our analysis has shown that the normative notion of 'good death', inspired by hospice ideology (Hart et al 1998) and in practice adapted to a 'good enough death' within the institutional logics of professional palliative care (McNamara 2004), has also diffused into the nursing home, but in a very practical and intuitive manner. While nursing homes for several decades were oriented towards curative medical practice, they are now starting to shift their orientations towards ideals of palliative care (Kostrzewa and Gerhard 2010).…”

Section: 'Death Work'mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Art of Enduring Contradictory Goals: Challenges in the Institutional Co-construction of a ‘good death’

Ammann

Gross

Rauber

2016

Journal of Intercultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Good enough death: autonomy and choice in Australian palliative care

Cited by 153 publications

References 27 publications

Ethical dilemmas faced by hospice nurses when administering palliative sedation to patients with terminal cancer

Ethical dilemmas faced by hospice nurses when administering palliative sedation to patients with terminal cancer

Care and communication between health professionals and patients affected by severe or chronic illness in community care settings: a qualitative study of care at the end of life

The Art of Enduring Contradictory Goals: Challenges in the Institutional Co-construction of a ‘good death’

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About