Preface; Part 1 Hospice as a Context of Health Care and Interpersonal Communication; Chapter 1 Beginnings; Chapter 2 Volunteer Training; Part 2 Entering the Country of the Dying; Chapter 3 Taking the First Steps; Chapter 4 The Volunteers’ Stories; Chapter 5 Going Out; Part 3 Communication as Improvisation; Chapter 6 Living in the Moment Between Life and Death; Chapter 7 Caring Without Conversation; Chapter 8 Being Together, Letting Go; Part 4 Communication at the Time of Death; Chapter 9 Endings; Chapter 10 Volunteers’ Reflections on the First Year; Chapter 11 Hospice and Communication at the End of Life; appendix1 Appendix;
Elissa Foster
"This is an account of Elissa Foster's moving experiences as a
hospice volunteer, focusing in particular on communication and
drawing on many stories of her experiences of being with dying
people. It also reflects a critical engagement with a wide range of
existing academic literature derived from sociological,
anthropological and other kinds of studies of dying and hospice
care. In bringing these two areas of experience and scholarship
together, the author has produced a significant and insightful
work, likely to be of great value to people involved both in
hospice care and in developing academic perspectives on this. I
congratulate the author on her achievement."
—Clive Seale
Brunel University"Communicating at the End of Life views
out-patient hospice care through the eyes of a doctoral student
doing ethnography by volunteering. The book offers an honest record
of what volunteer visits feel like, moment by moment. New hospice
volunteers and volunteer-coordinators will find the book of
particular interest."
—Arthur W. Frank
University of Calgary"This book offers extraordinary insight into
the emotions and surprising beauty of dying experiences. Foster
strikes just the right balance between personal experience and
empirical rigor.”
—Athena du Pre'
University of West Florida"Although an abundance of literature
concerned with end-of-life concerns has been rapidly growing in the
last 10 years, much of the work has been from the viewpoint of the
medical profession. Communicating at the End of Life alone deals
with volunteers' experiences with palliative care. Its depiction of
the hospice volunteer and, on a larger scale, of a volunteer in any
social service offers a realistic overview of the limitations,
difficulties, and pleasures of volunteer activities. It is also a
realistic picture, although a sad one, of the sometimes ineffectual
functioning of hospice organizations in general." --Viola Mecke,
PsycCRITIQUES
"This is an account of Elissa Foster's moving experiences as a
hospice volunteer, focusing in particular on communication and
drawing on many stories of her experiences of being with dying
people. It also reflects a critical engagement with a wide range of
existing academic literature derived from sociological,
anthropological and other kinds of studies of dying and hospice
care. In bringing these two areas of experience and scholarship
together, the author has produced a significant and insightful
work, likely to be of great value to people involved both in
hospice care and in developing academic perspectives on this. I
congratulate the author on her achievement."
—Clive Seale
Brunel University"Communicating at the End of Life views
out-patient hospice care through the eyes of a doctoral student
doing ethnography by volunteering. The book offers an honest record
of what volunteer visits feel like, moment by moment. New hospice
volunteers and volunteer-coordinators will find the book of
particular interest."
—Arthur W. Frank
University of Calgary"This book offers extraordinary insight into
the emotions and surprising beauty of dying experiences. Foster
strikes just the right balance between personal experience and
empirical rigor.”
—Athena du Pre'
University of West Florida
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