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Karolyn White

Publications and source records attributed to Karolyn White.

2 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A narrative account of the impact of positive thinking on discussions about death and dying.

GOALS OF WORK: The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of autologous stem cell transplant recipients (ASCT) and those who care for them. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a qualitative prospective, longitudinal study. Ten patients who were about to have ASCT and nine carers were recruited to the study. Interviews were to be conducted at regular intervals six times over 2 years. The narratives of two widowed carers were analysed using Grounded Theory and read for themes on positive thinking and death. MAIN RESULTS: Positive thinking has a range of meanings, and its use can have a range of consequences. It can either be a useful coping strategy or can interfere with important conversations and planning about the end of life, and subsequently add to the distress of a grieving partner. CONCLUSIONS: It is important for patients, their partners and their health professionals to be able to discuss potential adverse consequences of illness, including death, without being hindered by the obligation to be positive or optimistic.

Caregivers↗
PubMed2002

Nursing as vocation.

In this article the author argues that nursing is best understood as a vocational occupation. Using Blum's model of vocations it is argued that such occupations are socially expressed within practices embodying traditions, norms and a range of meanings: industrial, social, personal and moral. Vocational workers are those who identify in certain ways with these traditions, norms and meanings. One problem with the vocational model, as it has historically applied to nursing, is that it has been articulated through concepts of motherhood. Nursing was a vocation precisely because the character of the nurse was identified as feminine. The author argues that the vocational model for nursing can be conceptually disentangled from its identification with ideals of motherhood and femininity. It is nursing work and the identification with the moral and social meaning of nursing that give nursing its vocational status, not the feminized character of the nurse.

Career Choice↗