| Author: | Cheung, Chi-man |
| Title: | Can we talk about death? |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Death -- Psychological aspects Terminally ill -- Psychology Fear of death |
| Department: | School of Nursing |
| Pages: | 61 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The major concern of this study was to explore the willingness of terminally ill patient to talk about death and dying and what aspects they would like to talk about. A qualitative approach from the phenomenological perspective was adopted. The target population was the terminally ill patients of Hong Kong Chinese who were staying in the hospice. The total number of informants was seven. The unstructured interview method using open-ended questions was used to collect data. All the interviews were conducted in Cantonese, being transcribed into Chinese and then into English. Back translation was carried out in order to provide some validity check on the adequacy of the translated interview transcripts. Colaizzi's (1978) phenomenological method was used to analyze transcripts of the interviews. It was concluded that not all of the terminally ill patients were willing to talk about death and dying, the reasons for refusal need to be further explored. For those who were willing to talk about death and dying, implicit communication skills were commonly used. The main aspects in talking about death and dying were personal mortality; resigned acceptance; pain; illness; response and concerns in facing death. Besides, taking care of patients' family is also a significant aspect to all health care workers. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b16866666.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.39 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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