scholarly journals Cracking open death: death conversations in primary care

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Llewellyn ◽  
Chrystal Jaye ◽  
Richard Egan ◽  
Wayne Cunningham ◽  
Jessica Young ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Research supports talking about death outside the end-of-life context. Benefits include allaying death anxiety to increased engagement in health promotion interventions. Nonetheless, the focus on death conversations remains centred on the imminently dying. This qualitative study investigated New Zealanders’ perspectives on the value of, opportunities for, and barriers to death conversations in primary healthcare. METHODS Twenty-one participants were interviewed. Participants were young older adults (54–65 years) not receiving palliative care or diagnosed with a terminal illness. Most were women who identified ethnically as New Zealand European. An immersion–crystallisation approach to thematic development was used to accommodate the multidisciplinary research framework. RESULTS Four core themes were identified: ‘a need to talk about death’; ‘the role of the GP’; ‘broaching the topic’; and ‘media’. CONCLUSION A cultural silence on death has rendered both the medical and lay community insufficiently prepared for frank and meaningful engagement with the topic, exacerbated by restricted consultation timeframes. The ease of death conversations may be facilitated by taking a family-centred approach, using community organisations and settings, and harnessing conversation entry points provided by the media. Future research should aim to develop tailored resources and frameworks to support general practitioners’ meaningful engagement with the topic of death both within and outside of the end-of-life context.

2010 ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Basten

Much research has been conducted in the field of utilising the media - television and radio in particular - to promote particular public health messages. However, a burgeoning canon has examined how mass media can play a role in affecting change in fertility preferences and outcomes. In this paper we review these researches which have primarily focussed upon higher fertility settings. The impact of mass media presentation of families and children in low fertility settings has not yet been subject to rigorous sociological investigation so its impact can not be accurately inferred. However, given the pervasive nature of mass media and celebrity culture, we suggest that this is an important avenue for future research. We conclude that television plays a multi-faceted role in shaping individuals decision-making procedures concerning both demographic events and public health interactions. To illustrate this, we present a model which demonstrates a sliding scale of intent - but not impact - of various genres in order to understand the actual role of the media in shaping attitudes towards family size - either explicitly in terms of edutainment or implicitly as a forms of normalization.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 815-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara L. Wallace

AbstractObjective:Patients and families coping with a terminal illness are faced with a number of decisions over the course of their disease. The role that family communication plays in the process of decision making is an important one. The objectives for this review are to examine the current state of empirical literature on the relationship between family communication and decision making about end-of-life care, to identify gaps, and to discuss implications for policy, practice, and future research.Method:Articles were identified using systematic keyword searches within the following relevant databases: Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus, Communications and Mass Media Complete, ERIC, PsychINFO, MEDLINE, SocINDEX, and ProQuest.Results:The three bodies of relevant literature that emerged during this review include: (1) the importance of family communication at the end of life (EoL); (2) family decision making at the EoL; and (3) the interrelationship of communication (both within the family and with healthcare professionals) and decision making at the EoL. While the literature highlights the role of communication between medical professionals and the patient or family members, there is very little focus on the process of how family communication among the family members themselves contributes to decision making at the end of life.Significance of results:Barriers to end-of-life care are important considerations for helping patients to access timely and appropriate services. Understanding the pertinent role of family communication as it relates to the decision for EoL care is the first step in working to provide another avenue for overcoming these barriers.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dino Numerato

This article focuses on the role of the media in the processes of diffusion, maintenance, and undermining of corruption in sports, particularly soccer. Drawing chiefly on various illustrative examples of several recent cases of corruption and the existing academic literature on the topic, the article demonstrates how the media function as both an enemy and a facilitator of corruption in sports. Both micro- and macrosocial analytical dimensions for potential future research on the relationship between the media and corruption are proposed and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Shaikh

This paper highlights the ways in which political ideologies and the media influence the securitization of borders which in turn results in and continues the cycle of the criminalization of migration. The literature review looks briefly at the development of Canadian policies towards migrants, and the way that international treaty obligations shape this. It will also look at role of the media in the creation of a moral panic, resulting in a mass fear of migrants. This is used as justification for immigration detention centres and the human rights violations within them. I employ a brief content analysis and examine the messages twelve popular media articles portray to Canadians about the centres. I find that recent articles about Canadian immigration detention centres can be divided into four themes: “How They Work”, “Public Opposition”, “Not as Bad as the U.S.” and “Prison-like Conditions”. I conclude with policy recommendations and areas for future research with an emphasis on the need to develop effective, rights-based policies for incoming migrants. Key words: Crimmigration, securitization, moral panics, policy, immigration detention centres, human rights, refugee rights, media


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Sky Marsen

Issues of ‘failed’ nation-states, political meltdowns, coups and increasing militarisation have dogged the recent postcolonial history and environment of the Pacific. This, aside from the political and economic effects generally ascribed as the main societal impacts from such crises, has important social and cultural effects that are largely undocumented by academia as well as the media. The effects of political crisis on creativity through censorship, for example, are not adequately covered in current research and scholarship. The ‘Oceans and Nations: “Failed” States and the Environment in the Pacific’ symposium was organised concurrently with the Pacific Science Inter-Congress at the University of the South Pacific on 8-12 July 2013. This commentary and several other papers presented at this symposium are being published as part of this themed edition of Pacific Journalism Review. This article reflects on the role of the media in Fijians’ awareness, of environmental issues. It considers the question of whether local cultural and linguistic factors make the media a suitable source of information on the environment for Fijians, and proposes a method for future research that would help to answer this question.


Author(s):  
Michael K. Bednar

Corporate governance scholars have long been interested in understanding the mechanisms through which firms and their leaders are held accountable for their actions. Recently, there has been increased interest in viewing the media as a type of corporate governance mechanism. Because the media makes evaluations of firms and leaders, and can broadcast information to a wide audience, it has the potential to influence the reputation of firms and firm leaders in both positive and negative ways and thereby play a role in corporate governance. The media can play a governance role and even influence firm outcomes by simply reporting about firm actions, giving stakeholders a larger voice with which to exert influence, and through independent investigation. However, despite the potential for the media to play a significant governance role, several barriers limit its effectiveness in this capacity. For example, media outlets have their own set of interests that they must strive to fulfill, and journalists often succumb to several cognitive biases that could limit their ability to successfully hold leaders accountable. While significant progress has been made in understanding the governance role of the media, future research is needed to better understand the specific conditions in which the media is effective in this role. Understanding how social media is changing the nature of journalism is just one example of the many exciting avenues for future research in this area.


Author(s):  
Ellen J. Bass ◽  
Polly A. College ◽  
Susan Bruce

With respect to harm reduction health promotion interventions, consideration of prior plans is critical in evaluating behavior change. This study addresses prior plans on participation in a singular binge drinking occurrence where some students attempt to drink a fifth (750 ml) of liquor as an unsanctioned component of an annual university event. A pledge campaign with incentives was implemented to reduce participation. A link to an anonymous survey was emailed after the event. The campaign was effective as 90.8% of pledgers did not participate in the event. However, those with prior plans to participate were less likely to engage in the campaign. The association of plan commitment, pledge status and participation status was significant (female: X2(1)=7.95, p=0.005 and males: X2(1)=39.79, p<0.001). Reducing participation for committed students through a pledge campaign alone appears unlikely to change planned behavior. Future research should examine the role of plans and related factors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 494-505
Author(s):  
Celina Carter

Despite agreement that end-of-life conversations should happen early on in the illness trajectory, it is widely acknowledged that healthcare practitioners often engage in these conversations when death is imminent or avoid the conversation altogether. Healthcare practitioners’ feelings of distress influence how end-of-life conversations are approached, yet thorough exploration of this emotional experience and its impact are largely missing from the literature. The aims of this preliminary scoping literature review using poetic inquiry were to examine physicians’ and nurses’ emotional distress in their accounts of how they approach end-of-life conversations, and to map key concepts relevant to exploring barriers to these conversations. The poetic findings highlight the differing nature of distress for physicians and nurses. Physicians’ distress appears to stem from adhering to their role of ‘curer’ when communicating with terminally ill adult patients at the end of life, whereas the sources of nurses’ distress appear to be interprofessional hierarchies and conflicts. Future research and training that uses methods to decentre and disrupt hierarchies and ingrained practices will be important to nursing practice and in improving end-of-life conversations. Arts-based approaches are one such method that could be pursued.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhe Ouyang ◽  
Jiuchang Wei ◽  
Yu Xiao ◽  
Fei Wang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of media attention on corporate disaster relief. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a matched sample research design, which is considered more appropriate than a random sample design for studying events that have low-occurrence rates in general. For each donor firm in the Yushu earthquake, the authors matched the firm with a non-donor firm in the same industry and with a firm size of within ±30 percent of the total assets in the year prior to the year of the occurrence of the Yushu earthquake. Then, using the Baidu engine, which is the most popular Chinese search engine, the authors captured the online media attention to the donor firms and their disaster relief. Findings The authors found that media attention drove corporate disaster relief. Research limitations/implications Although the authors highlighted the role of the media as an important stakeholder in influencing corporate disaster relief, the authors did not fully explore the media’s influence. Future research should delve more deeply into the impact of the tenor of media coverage on corporate disaster relief. Originality/value This study reveals that the media, a particularly powerful stakeholder, can be a corporate disaster relief driver in China.


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