Crossing Over: Narratives of Palliative Care

Crossing Over provides a unique view of patients, families, and their caregivers striving together to maintain comfort and hope in the face of incurable illness. Using a variety of qualitative research methods, including participant-observation, interviews, and journal keeping, the book provides the reader with rich, multi-textured narratives. These narratives weave together emotions, physical symptoms, spiritual concerns, and the stresses of family life, as well as the professional and personal challenges of providing hospice and palliative care. Crossing Over moves far beyond conventional case reports in medicine, which typically concentrate on symptoms and treatment, and clichés about "death with dignity." It depicts the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of daily life in patients' homes and in the palliative care unit, exploring how individuals find personal meaning in illness, and how this influences the experience and outcome of care. It captures the diversity of people's aspirations and ideals as they face death, and the often challenging conflicts between their views of death and the views of the professionals who care for them. This book brings to life the anger and fear, tenderness and reconciliation, jealousy and love, social support and "falling through the cracks," the unexpected courage and unshakable faith, which are all part of facing death. It provides an extraordinary portrait of the processes of giving and receiving palliative care. This book is ideal for practitioners and trainees in medicine, nursing, gerontology, ministry, counseling psychology, allied health, and social work, and will be of special interest to patients and their families. Click here to order Crossing Over from Amazon.com.