Centre for Policy on Ageing



It isn't something to yodel about, but it exists! — faeces, nurses, social relations and status within a mental hospital
Author(s)	E van Dongen
Journal title	Aging & Mental Health, vol 5, no 3, August 2001
Pages	pp 205-215
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Faecal incontinence ; Patients ; Personality ; Psychiatric nurses ; Psychiatric units ; Netherlands.
Annotation	In medical settings, emotion-provoking work creates a hierarchy among health care professionals. "Lower" emotions such as the disgust, contempt or aversion evoked by "body work" with older patients often remain invisible, but they play an important role in morality, and shape the social relations between patients and professionals. The author uses ethnographic data from nursing wards of a Dutch mental hospital to show how feelings about excrement are determined not only by their nature, but also by the nature of the relationships among nurses, and the relationships between nurses and patients. Body care and the emotions evoked are connected to morality and moral care; and dealing with bodily and moral "dirt" gives nurses a special position within the hospital as a whole, which will have effects on the care of older people. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-010927207 A
Classmark	CTMF: LF: DK: QTK: LDL: 76H
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.