"En mänsklig atmosfär" : trygghet, samhörighet och gemenskap: god vård ur ett patientperspektiv

Sammanfattning: Söderlund, M. 1998: "En mänsklig atmosfär". Trygghet, samhörighet och gemenskap. God vård ur ett patientperspektiv. ("In the atmosphere of humanity". Security, solidarity and mutual understanding. The concept of good care from the patients’ perspective).Written in Swedish with an English summary. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala Studies in Education 210 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-4310-9The dissertation is a qualitative study which is based on the patients’ experience of caring. The aim of the research is to obtain a hermeneutical understanding of the meaning of Man’s existential world of being a patient. In order to attain the aim, the author uses a model for existential interpretation.The existential perspective on caring is total with respect to the view of how human beings, wherever they might be, are influenced and changed by some educational process. The author’s opinion is that the patients’ perceptions of care depend on the unique educational process which is present in every culture and which influences people in each and every aspect of life. It makes caring a cultural matter and it calls attention to the processes of socialization and learning which traditionally would remain hidden or invisible.The need to study experiences of caring in context was demonstrated using the method of triangulation in purposeful sampling. To be able to reach a deeper understanding of the concept of caring, interpretation using the hermeneutical dialectic process is necessary.The author has interpreted different types of texts and, in doing so, she has reached a deeper understanding of the patients’ existential world as being a conflicting process of dehumanization or humanization. Dehumanization is experienced when the caring process is characterized by patients’ struggle against caregivers to overcome their suffering and humiliation. In the process of humanization the confirming dialogue is the essential mode of caring communication as a learning process. The opposite is when the caregivers fight with them, not for them, in the struggle with the aim to protect the patients’ humanity. In the process of dehumanization the anti-dialogue is conspicuous.The dissertation concludes with a reflection on the freedom of praxis in relation to caring.