A missing link? The role of mortuary staff in hospital-based bereavement care services
Keywords:
Anatomical pathology technologists, bereavement care service, community of practice, hospital mortuary, ethnography, dirty workAbstract
AbstractIn this paper we argue that anatomical pathology technologists (APTs) have been overlooked as a key group of healthcare practitioners who play a role in bereavement care. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a mortuary team in a large urban hospital, we examine the technical and emotional components of the APT role, including how the concept of patient care is utilised in the mortuary. We argue that their work with other healthcare practitioners and professionals illustrates how APTs offer a ‘bridge’ between the immediacy of a death, after-death care and subsequent viewing of the deceased person, thereby providing a vital and under-acknowledged service for bereaved people. We conclude that through education and the promotion of mortuary activities APTs are developing a ‘community of practice’ that moves beyond an outdated perception of ‘dirty work’ towards a more enlightened vision of mortuary settings and APTs as important components of hospital-based bereavement care services.
References
Armstrong
S (2008). A matter of life and death: conversations with pathologists. Dundee: Dundee University Press.
British Sociological Association (2002). Statement of ethical practice. Available at: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/27107/StatementofEthicalPractice.pdf [accessed 10 December 2012].
Brysiewicz
P (2007). The lived experience of working in a mortuary. Accident and Emergency Nursing
(2) 88–93.
Burnett
RA (ed) (2004). A handbook of anatomical pathology technology. London: Royal Institute of Public Health.
Cahill
SE (1999). The boundaries of professionalization: the case of North American Funeral Direction. Symbolic Interaction
(2) 105–119.
Chapple
A, Ziebland
S (2010). Viewing the body after bereavement due to traumatic death: qualitative study in the UK. British Medical Journal
, c2032.
Department of Health (2005). When a patient dies: advice on developing bereavement services in the NHS. London: DH.
Department of Health (2006). Care and respect in death: good practice guidance for NHS mortuary staff. London: DH.
Department of Health (2010a). Modernising scientific careers: the UK way forward. London: DH.
Department of Health (2010b). Modernising scientific careers: the England Action Plan. London: DH.
Department of Health (2010c). Bereavement care services: a synthesis of the literature. London: DH.
Douglas
M (1984). Purity and danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge and Kegen Paul.
Fauri
D, Ettner
B, Kovacs
PJ (2000). Bereavement services in acute care settings. Death Studies
(1) 51–64.
Gassaway
BM (2007). The death doctors. In:
SK
Drew, M
Mills, BM
Gassaway (eds).
Dirty work: The social construction of taint. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press
–168.
Goffman
E (1963). Stigma: notes on a spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Grant
L (1999). Portraits from the funeral trade: a way of life. London: Len Grant Photography.
Hallam
E, Hockey
J, Howarth
G (1999). Beyond the body: death and social identity. London: Routledge.
Harper
S (2010). Behind closed doors? Corpses and mourners in English and American Funeral Premises. In
J
Hockey, C
Komaromy, K
Woodthorpe (eds).
The matter of death: space, place and materiality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 100–116.
Howarth
G (1996). Last rights: the work of the modern funeral director. New York: Baywood Publishing Company.
Horsley
PA (2008). Death dwells in spaces: bodies in the hospital mortuary. Anthropology and Medicine
(2) 133–146.
Hughes
EC (1962). Good people and dirty work. Social Problems Vol. 10 No. 1
Summer
–11.
Kings Fund (2011). Improving the patient experience: environments for care at end of life, The King's Fund's enhancing the healing environment programme 2008-2010. London: Kings Fund
Komaromy
C, Woodthorpe
K (2011). Investigating mortuary services in hospital settings, unpublished report.
Lave
J, Wenger
E (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
National End of Life Care Programme (2011a). What to do when a person dies: guidance for professionals on developing bereavement services. Available from: http://www.endoflifecare.nhs.uk/assets/downloads/When_a_Person_Dies_19_Oct_2011_web.pdf [accessed 31 July 2013].
National End of Life Care Programme (2011b). Guidance for staff responsible for care after death (last offices). Available from: http://www.endoflifecare.nhs.uk/assets/downloads/Care_After_Death___guidance.pdf [accessed 31 July 2013].
Parkes
CM (1986). Bereavement: studies of grief in adult life, (2nd ed). Hammondsworth: Penguin.
Silverman
PR, Klass
D (1996). Introduction: What's the problem? In
D
Klass, PR
Silverman, L
Nickman (eds).
Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. Washington D.C: Taylor and Francis
–27.
Timmermans
S (2007). Postmortem: how medical examiners explain suspicious deaths. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Van der Geest
S (2006). Between death and the funeral: mortuaries and the exploitation of liminality in Kwahu, Ghana. Africa
(4) 405–581.
Walsh
T, Foreman
M, Curry
P, O'Driscoll
S, McCormack, M (2008). Bereavement support in an acute hospital: an Irish model. Death Studies
(8) 768–786.
Walsh
T, Breslin
G, Curry
P, Foreman
M, McCormach, M (2013). A whole-hospital approach? Some staff views of a hospital bereavement care service. Death Studies
(6) 552–568.
Williams
M (2010). Down among the dead men: a year in the life of a mortuary technician. London: Constable & Robinson.
Worden
W (1991). Grief counselling and grief therapy. London: Routledge.
