Nurses and the dying: Symbolic interaction as a precipitator of dying “stages”

The impact of nurses' attitudes upon their communication with dying patients is examined from the symbolic interaction perspective. Data were obtained from participant observation in the intensive care and postintensive care units of a hospital and from in-depth interviewes with additional nurses. Characteristics of the situation, nurses, and patients were examined in terms of an Interpersonal Reactions Model. The strength of this model is its emphasis upon the effect unintended judgments may have on a patient's self-image. A stage in the dying process may simply be a response to the nonverbally communicated expectations of interactors with dying persons. This research focuses on the first stage of this model—the differential reaction of nurses to the varying characteristics of patients within the constraints of extra-care situations.This is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association in Little Rock, Arkansas, in November, 1980.     

Can we create a therapeutic relationship with nursing home residents in the later stages of Alzheimer's disease?

1. Despite their entrance into advanced illness, the majority (83%) of participants in the study displayed evidence of having begun a therapeutic relationship with their assigned advanced practice nurse. 2. With one exception, those participants who did not evidence development of the relationship had severely limited speech, perseverative speech, or did not speak at all. 3. It is time to challenge the assumption that individuals in the middle and later stages of Alzheimer's disease are not good candidates for developing a therapeutic relationship.     

The ties that bind? Social networks of nursing staff and staff's behaviour towards residents with dementia

This study investigated social networks of nursing staff and staff's behaviour towards residents with dementia. We focused on two types of networks: communication networks among staff, and networks between nursing staff and relatives/acquaintances of residents. Data was collected in 37 long-term care units in nursing- and residential homes in the Netherlands.     

Quality of life of older people in Israel: a comparison between older people living at home who are members of a ‘supportive community’ and nursing home residents

The supportive community is a program that was developed in Israel for older people who live at home. The program provides its members with a service package that includes medical and social services, emergency call-button, cultural activities, and a ‘community parent’ who is responsible for the members. Using quantitative method, this study compared the level of quality of life between 55 older people living in their homes who are members of a supportive community (average age = 74.7) and 60 elderly people living in nursing homes (average age = 75.8). As expected, results indicate that quality of life among the older people living at their homes who are members of a supportive community was higher than among the older people living in a nursing home. In addition, the quality of life of married, educated, functionally independent older people in good health and with a good economic situation was higher. Predictor variables of quality of life were: the place of residence, health status, and age. In light of increased life expectancy and the growing need to care for the older population, the practical application of the study focused on a recommendation for the social services to continue the support community development program.     

An ‘unholy alliance’ of existential proportions: Negotiating discourses with men's experiences of cancer and aging

Little is understood about how experiencing cancer and aging together can disrupt people's socio-personal worlds and lead to existential questions about identity, life ambiguity, and death. Toward this end, we interpreted the metaphors that three aging men with cancer used in a focus group to describe their existential concerns. We also considered how two dominant cultural discourses around cancer and aging, generally referred to as discourses of “progress” and “decline”, figured into the participants' meanings. Finally, we compared the men's attitudes toward cancer and aging to dominant ideas about how men respond to these life events. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, informed by critical phenomenology, we came to three conclusions. First, the men's interpretations of cancer and aging shared similar existential themes of tragedy and transcendence. Second, these existential concerns were informed by dominant discourses of cancer and aging, in that they followed the culturally constructed trajectories of decline and progress, respectively. The men's metaphors point to a negotiation of these two discourses. A third and related point is that the men predominantly contradicted gendered assumptions about dealing with life adversity but in some ways repeated them. This research indicates that people interpret cancer and aging in somewhat shared ways, via dominant cultural discourses, but also in individual ways depending on personal life histories. As discourses and life histories seem to influence how people make sense of aging life with cancer, it may be useful to be aware of these contexts when providing psycho-social care to aging cancer patients.     

Tattoo Narratives: The intersection of the body,self‐identity and society

Drawing upon Frank's (1995) discussion of the personal and social aspects of embodied storytelling, this paper considers the tattoo as a form of visual communication created within a multiplicity of contexts. Based on in‐depth interviews with eight tattooed men and women, the focus of this article is the stories that these individuals tell about their tattoos. I argue that the tattooed body is a distinctively communicative body. It has a great deal to say, not only about the identity of the wearer, but also about the culture in which she lives. I conclude with some reflections on examining the tattoo as a conceptual latchkey—a tool that may enable researchers to begin to unlock the complicated relationship between the body, self‐identity and society.     

The nation’s body: disability and deviance in the writings of Adolf Hitler

This article takes its starting point in the Nazi ideology as it appears in the writings of Adolf Hitler, and discusses how disability and the body can be understood in the context of Mein Kampf. The article underlines how disability and bodily infirmities, alongside race, featured significantly in Hitler’s demagogic message. Although the overall image of disability was related to a sense of threat – and a culture gone wrong – Mein Kampf also contains a mixed interpretation of disability as a phenomenon, in which different and opposing disability narratives took part in the construction and the image of the body as a national property.     

An examination of the locus of desired control among young‐old and old‐old nursing home patients (1)

This research examined the locus of desired control among a sample of 218 nursing home residents. Two issues were addressed: (a) What is the predictive impact on locus of desired control of education, gender, race, functional ability, subjective health and length of stay among the residents in each of the two age groups? and (b) Was there a difference in the locus of desired control among the young‐old (74 years or less) and old‐old residents (75 years or more)? A discriminant analysis revealed that among the 95 young‐old residents, greater desire for control, internality, was associated with poorer functional abilities, poorer subjective health and longer lengths of stay. Among the 123 old‐old residents, greater desire for control was assciated only with poorer functional abilities and poorer subjective health. Further, a significantly greater proportion of old‐old residents had greater locus of desired control, 59 percent, in comparison to only 43 percent of the young‐old residents who expressed greater locus of desired control.     

Homemaking in the public. On the scales and stakes of framing,feeling, and claiming extra-domestic space as “home”

This article reviews the emerging literature on the negotiation of home-related feelings, claims, and practices in the public urban sphere, under the rubric of homemaking in the public. This contributes to a better sociological understanding of home and illuminates long-debated societal questions such as the interaction between majority and minority groups and the shifting boundaries between what is (regarded as) public or private. While home has traditionally been understood as a private and domestic matter, it also has a major public significance. As a category of analysis, it reveals how supposedly domestic attitudes, routines, and practices are scaled up into the public domain. As a category of practice, it is a powerful discursive resource for contentious politics in the extra-domestic domain. Who is entitled and legitimated to claim a public space as “home”, and what this implies for inter-group categorizations and relations, are questions that deserve original and comparative analysis in sociology. Processes of domestication of the public sphere, of mutual interaction between public and private life realms, and of claims-making on various scales can be fruitfully revisited along these lines, by advancing an original research agenda on the ways of framing, feeling and claiming public space as home.     

The impact of age,BMI and sex hormone on aging males’ symptoms and the international index of erectile function scores

Objective: To analyze the impact of age, BMI and sex hormone on aging males’ symptoms (AMS) and the 5-item version of the international index of erectile function (IIEF-5) scores in middle-aged and elderly Chinese men.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jiashan County. A total of 969 men, aged between 40 and 80 years old, were admitted. Physical examination and the sex hormones were measured, and AMS and IIEF-5 scores were assessed.

Results: The oneway ANOVA analysis indicated older age groups had higher AMS total-scores, somatic and sexual sub-scores, and lower IIEF5 scores (all p?r_pairwise) analyses showed the significant associations between AMS and age or sex hormone (cFT, Bio-T, SHBG, and LH) levels, and similar for IIEF5. However, when age was adjusted, the correlation coefficients (r_partial) weakened, and correlation significance disappeared, except LH (for AMS: r_partial?=?0.096, p?=?.009; for IIEF-5: r_partial?= ?0.140, p?=?.001). Multiple linear regressions confirmed the influence of increased age and LH on the AMS and IIEF5 scores.

Conclusion: CFT, Bio-T and SHBG failed to yield any additional predicting information when age was adjusted. To improve the male reproductive health, future research should pay more attention on aging-related comorbidities and how to improve general wellness.     

Corporatism Revisited—The Legacy of History and the German Nonprofit Sector

Salamon argues strongly in favor of a public–nonprofit partnership model expressing the European flavor of corporatism. Germany provides a textbook example of corporatist arrangements, particularly in the fields of health care and social services. Whereas American nonprofit organizations are suffering from a crisis of legitimacy caused by marketization, German nonprofit organizations have been confronted with a crisis of legitimacy and identity caused by corporatism since the early 1980s. This particular scenario, however, is not covered by Salmon's analysis.     

A new age of old age?: Gerotranscendence and the re-enchantment of aging

Gerotranscendence theory is reviewed regarding its content, development, diffusion, impact, empirical results, and ontology. Gerotranscendence theory describes a “natural” alteration of consciousness in old age leading to “wisdom” and a qualitative break with a mid-life rational and materialist world-view. According to the theory, gerotranscendence is obstructed by a lack of alternative values and roles in old age in Western societies. Theoretically and in clinical practice, gerotranscendence theory has been linked to psychoanalysis. It is concluded that gerotranscendence theory is empirically weak, has parallels in the New Age movement as well as in romantic Orientalism, and can be understood as an attempt to re-enchant aging.     

An Analysis of The Human Stain——from the perspective of the existentialism

The essay aims at analyzing several main characters of The Human Stain written by Philip Roth from the perspective of existentialism,thus revealing the inevitable tragic destiny of modern people in a world filled with hypocrisy,persecution and distrust and the way to escape from the grievance and struggle in inner mind.     

The history and culture of the Jews as reflected in post‐Communist Polish historiography and related activities

A Jewish European Modern Intellectual. Moses Gaster: Memorii, Corespondenta (Moses Gaster: Memoirs and Correspondence). Edited and annotated by Victor Eskenasy. Bucharest: Hasefer Publishing House 1998. xxxv+467pp. (Romanian with English and German summaries)

A Very Selective Reading. Cecil D. Edy, Hungary at War (Pennsylvania State University Press 1998), xx+318pp., price unknown

’Setting the Record Straight‘. The Story of Two Shtetls, Bransk and Ejszyszki. An Overview of Polish‐Jewish Relations in Northeastern Poland during World War II. A Collective Work, Toronto/Chicago: The Polish Educational Foundation in North America 1998. Part 1 190pp., part 2 240pp.

A Symbol of the ‘Story‘. Michael Moshe Checinski, My Father's Watch, New York and Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House 1994, 248pp. Glossary. Hard/softcover, US$30; $14.95

A Curious Experiment. Robert Weinberg, Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland. An Illustrated History, 1928–1996. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998 ix + 105pp. Biblio. Illus. Notes. Index     

‘The dying of the light’: the impact of the spending cuts,and cuts to employment law protections,on disability adjustments in British local authorities

Adjustments to working arrangements and the working environment have enabled organisations to recruit and retain valuable staff and helped disabled individuals to work and progress in their careers. The qualitative study reported in this paper indicates that generally good adjustments-related practice across 33 British local authorities was beginning to deteriorate under the impact of government spending cuts; and was at further risk from the dismantling of legal protections. The findings have implications for local authorities, but also for national policy-makers and those wishing to influence them.     

The impact of the agricultural industry on the rural economy — tracking the spatial distribution of the farm inputs and outputs

With all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the agricultural industry, it is important to gain some kind of insight into the economic impact the industry has on the rural economy, to enable the formation of the most appropriate rural policies. Using Farm Business Survey data, this study examines the spatial distribution of inputs and outputs from a sample of 52 farms in the Reading Province. The results show significant links between farms and their locality, especially for the smaller farm.