1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910819048403321

Autore

Cassell Joan

Titolo

Life and death in intensive care / / Joan Cassell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia : , : Temple University Press, , 2005

ISBN

1-281-09391-2

9786611093914

1-59213-337-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 233 pages)

Disciplina

617/.919

Soggetti

Critical care medicine - New Zealand

Critical care medicine - United States

Surgical intensive care - New Zealand

Surgical intensive care - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-228) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction Moonscape: The Surgical Intensive Care Unit; 1 A Caring Ethic: Nurses and the Dilemma of Powerlessness; 2 The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: The Residents; 3 Diverse Universes of Medical Discourse: The Fellows; 4 The Attendings; 5 Is Death the Enemy, or Suffering?; 6 Confronting Death in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit; 7 Intensive Caring in New Zealand; 8 Going Gentle into that Good Night: Death in Auckland; 9 Focusing on the Bottom Line; 10 The Dominion of Death; Appendix  "Hard" Science, "Soft" Science, Social Science: The Anxiety of Methods; Notes; References; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Life and Death in Intensive Care offers a unique portrait of the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the place in medical centers and hospitals where patients with the gravest medical conditions-from comas to terminal illness-are treated. Author Joan Cassell employs the concept of ""moral economies"" to explain the dilemmas that patients, families, and medical staff confront in treatment. Drawing upon her fieldwork conducted in both the United States and New Zealand, Cassell compares the moral outlooks and underlying principles of SICU nurses, residents, intensivists, and surgeons