Awareness of Dying
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Abstract
A study of the process of dying in American hospitals focuses upon discernible recurrent patterns of interaction between staff members, terminally ill patients, and their families. Strauss and Glaser suppose that the expectation of death by both the dying and the relatives are a key to understanding the interactions between those people. Their choice of hospitals and stations allowed them to compare various kinds of expectations. On a premature infant station, mortality was high but the patients were not aware of their impeding deaths, while on an oncology station, dying was slow and differences in the awareness of dying were very pronounced. The hypothesis results in a theory on the influence of awareness on the interaction with dying people.