At være døende hjemme? Hverdagsliv og idealer

The dissertation deals with two part-studies. The main focus is a field study the purpose of which is to understand incurable disease and death as hands-on experiences at the player's level. With the aid of observations and interviews, nine dying people, relatives and community nurses are followed in the families? homes over time. The second part-study is a discourse analysis of Danish health-policy reports on the palliative field from 1985 to 2006. The object is to elucidate social ideals about ?the good death?. The epistemological approach has been inspired by social constructionism. The field study has been analysed on the back of everyday-life theory, and the discourse analysis with inspiration from genealogical discourse analyses, discourse theory and perspectives on the construction of social problems.

The field study shows how everyday routines, ruptures, time and space are essential to the family's everyday life, as well as how the bodily experience of the dying can have a bearing on action strategies. Insight is provided into the way relationships and interactions are challenged, as well as the potential difficulty of handling issues about dying people's whereabouts, intimate situations and "talking about death". In terms of the nurses, for example, it emerges that dispensing medication and other clinical tasks can have various functions, as well as contact with the families proving a potential challenge to professionals.