TY - JOUR
T1 - Representing death in psychology
T2 - Hospice nurses’ lived experiences
AU - Mercer, Jenny
AU - Feeney, James
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2009, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2009/7/22
Y1 - 2009/7/22
N2 - Abstract: This article describes the social representations of death held by two groups of nurses in a hospice setting. Focus group interviews, one with White British nurses and the other with Filipino nurses, were conducted in order to explore their representations of death and how these related to their daily lived work experience. An interpretative phenomenological analysis identified that super-ordinate themes of death are an emotional response and death is a wall to human intervention. Both cultural groups identified with these themes in different ways, and the authors contend that their representations of death functioned as symbolic coping strategies which protected participants within their work environment. It is suggested that such an approach could be usefully utilised within health psychology to provide a more context-dependent method of looking at individual or group experiences.
AB - Abstract: This article describes the social representations of death held by two groups of nurses in a hospice setting. Focus group interviews, one with White British nurses and the other with Filipino nurses, were conducted in order to explore their representations of death and how these related to their daily lived work experience. An interpretative phenomenological analysis identified that super-ordinate themes of death are an emotional response and death is a wall to human intervention. Both cultural groups identified with these themes in different ways, and the authors contend that their representations of death functioned as symbolic coping strategies which protected participants within their work environment. It is suggested that such an approach could be usefully utilised within health psychology to provide a more context-dependent method of looking at individual or group experiences.
KW - critical health psychology
KW - hospice nurses
KW - interpretative phenomenological analysis
KW - social representation
KW - symbolic coping strategy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77950743300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13576270903017149
DO - 10.1080/13576270903017149
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77950743300
SN - 1357-6275
VL - 14
SP - 245
EP - 264
JO - Mortality
JF - Mortality
IS - 3
ER -