From competence to vulnerability: Care, ethics, and elders from racialized minorities

The Art of Enduring Contradictory Goals: Challenges in the Institutional Co-construction of a ‘good death’

“…Yet, condensing such diversities down to clear 'cultural' categories is not possible due to the complexity and individuality of ontological reference points. Therefore, as Gunaratnam (2008) has shown in detail, reference to 'cultural knowledge' is not in itself helpful in concrete 'death work' (see also Kai et al 2007). The everyday interactions of professional carers', residents' and relatives' 'doing death' are always threatened by insecurities that question routinised procedures: not only with regard to professional 'death workers', as Gunaratnam (2008) has shown, but also with regard to residents and especially relatives acting as proxies.…”

“…Therefore, as Gunaratnam (2008) has shown in detail, reference to 'cultural knowledge' is not in itself helpful in concrete 'death work' (see also Kai et al 2007). The everyday interactions of professional carers', residents' and relatives' 'doing death' are always threatened by insecurities that question routinised procedures: not only with regard to professional 'death workers', as Gunaratnam (2008) has shown, but also with regard to residents and especially relatives acting as proxies. Dealing with 'ontological insecurities' in 'dying trajectories' may lead to a variegation of agency, ranging from explicit agency (as for example the relatives in case C) to incapability of agency (as in case D).…”

“…Such frames of reference shape interactions on an implicit level (see 'implicit knowledge' in Giddens 1984). Transforming them into explicit knowledge as a basis for mutual negotiation and consensual decision-making is in practice a very demanding task involving the risk of threatening 'ontological security' (Giddens 1991, Gunaratnam 2008. Specifically, although migrant dying may show very obviously how divergent notions of 'good death' can collide, these conflicts do not only occur when migrant dying is at stake, and they do not only occur between 'death workers' and relatives, but also among relatives and/or among 'death workers'.…”

An Exploration of Specialist Palliative Care Nurses’ Experiences of Providing Care to Hospice Inpatients from Minority Ethnic Groups—Implication for Religious and Spiritual Care

“…At the same time the national provision of chaplaincy services is under review [15]. In order to meet the religious needs of patients from minority ethnic groups it has been recognised that factual knowledge is required [12,16] in addition to education and training [11,[17][18][19]. For healthcare professionals involved solely in the provision of palliative care, the aforementioned issues are of particular relevance.…”

Clinical encounters and culturally competent practice: the challenges of providing cancer and infertility care

“…This flexibility partly explains the idea's popularity, as it simultaneously combines a post-modern concern with reflexive engagement and normative persuasion (Lo and Stacey, 2008) with a more long-standing, instrumental interest, which enables the State to use such insights to collectively manage complex social issues (Beck, 1992). As an illustration, this paper provides an analysis of how health and social care practitioners reflect on the 'messiness' (see Gunaratnam, 2008) of their everyday clinical encounters with patients of white and South-Asian backgrounds, while attempting to provide 'cultural competence' care. The interface between oncology and infertility services is an ideal case study, as the routines of the clinical encounters embody multi-facetted social, cultural and ethical judgements, requiring detailed, sensitive and responsive negotiation (Drew, 2003).…”