Caring in Context, An Ethnography of Cancer Nursing in India
Non-Fiction, Routledge Press
Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted by an American nurse, Caring in Context shares nurses’ powerful and personal accounts about how the majority of the world experiences cancer, examining key contexts that influence nursing practice and the delivery of healthcare in highly resource-constrained settings. Its unique perspective and accessible style will appeal to a wide audience, from clinicians and social scientists to anyone interested in the complex context of the human experience and how we respond to the suffering of others when they have little means to help – or for complex reasons, choose not to.
Signed copy available when ordered through our shop! Please enter the inscription information after you click ‘add to cart’.
Non-Fiction, Routledge Press
Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted by an American nurse, Caring in Context shares nurses’ powerful and personal accounts about how the majority of the world experiences cancer, examining key contexts that influence nursing practice and the delivery of healthcare in highly resource-constrained settings. Its unique perspective and accessible style will appeal to a wide audience, from clinicians and social scientists to anyone interested in the complex context of the human experience and how we respond to the suffering of others when they have little means to help – or for complex reasons, choose not to.
Signed copy available when ordered through our shop! Please enter the inscription information after you click ‘add to cart’.
Non-Fiction, Routledge Press
Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted by an American nurse, Caring in Context shares nurses’ powerful and personal accounts about how the majority of the world experiences cancer, examining key contexts that influence nursing practice and the delivery of healthcare in highly resource-constrained settings. Its unique perspective and accessible style will appeal to a wide audience, from clinicians and social scientists to anyone interested in the complex context of the human experience and how we respond to the suffering of others when they have little means to help – or for complex reasons, choose not to.
Signed copy available when ordered through our shop! Please enter the inscription information after you click ‘add to cart’.
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Caring in Context is the story of how the majority of the world experiences cancer, and how nurses bear witness and respond to the suffering of others when they have little means to help – or for complex reasons, choose not to.
Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted by an American nurse, Caring in Context centers on the experiences of nurses working in a government cancer hospital in South India. Through sharing nurses’ powerful and personal accounts, this book examines key contexts that influence nursing practice and the delivery of healthcare, such as hierarchical legacies of colonialism and the caste system; resource scarcity; power and perceived powerlessness; gender inequities; and complex religious and political dynamics, both within and outside the hospital. These themes are illustrated through intersecting narratives that trace, for example, the story of Hameeda, an orphaned teenager with sarcoma who lives at the hospital until she becomes paralyzed, and that of Sister Meena, a nurse who strives to provide better care but encounters overwhelming structural barriers and is chastised by her superiors for doing too much.
Caring in Context offers a critical re-examination of the realities faced by healthcare providers, patients and family members who struggle to deliver and receive cancer care in highly resource-constrained settings. Its unique perspective and accessible style will appeal to a wide audience, from clinicians and social scientists to anyone interested in the complex context of the human experience.
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Publication Date: March 29, 2024
Print Length: 274 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1032536880
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Reviews
The best ethnography of a government hospital in a low and middle-income country I have read. Caring in Context captures in vivid, raw, and heartfelt detail the experiences of cancer patients, their caretakers, and hospital staff in India. The rich descriptions of human suffering and inadequate pain management, and the ways hospital staff attempt to maintain control as well as their own humanity in the face of scant resources and unmeetable patient needs, are haunting.
Mark Nichter, PhD
Regents Professor Emeritus
University of Arizona, School of Anthropology, USA
Dr. Virginia LeBaron has shared her frontline experiences in India, but her words describe the far broader concerns of the inequity of health care worldwide. Her time in India captured in this book describes the elements of power and money, and the consequence of this unjust system which results in profound suffering. The book is essential reading for clinicians, researchers and policy makers who care about human rights. Her first-person narrative will open your eyes, and your hearts.
Betty Ferrell PhD, FAAN, FPCN, CHPN
Professor, City of Hope Medical Center, USA
PI, End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)
Caring in Context unveils poignant stories of unbearable suffering in a government cancer hospital in South India. In this remarkable work, Virginia LeBaron shares powerful, honest examples of how the nurses and other healthcare professionals cope without essential medicines and basic resources. This is a crucial book for all who are interested in global health and the urgent need for universal access to palliative care.
Judith Paice, PhD, RN,
Director, Cancer Pain Program
Northwestern University; Feinberg School of Medicine, USA
Well written an an interesting read
Having studied cancer biology in graduate school, always being interested in medicine and other cultures, I found this book to be a really intriguing read. It was fascinating reading about the way the majority of the world experiences healthcare in the cancer field, which in some ways is very different than in the US, and other ways is similar. It was particularly interesting reading about Virginia's direct experiences living in India, being in the cancer hospital, and the eye opening things she witnessed and experienced. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in nursing, cancer care, and life in India.
Sandra M., Amazon Review
A personal account of the quest for adequate palliative care
Caring in Context packs a punch - straight to the gut. Dr. LeBaron, a Fulbright scholar, recounts in vivid detail her observations of the challenges facing nurses and other health care workers in a South India cancer hospital, as they struggle to provide compassionate care without critical medicines and other essential supplies we here at home routinely take for granted. Hers is a personal journey - initially perceived by some staff as a U.S. spy, to the hugs and embraces a year later at her last official day at the hospital - one that is replete with intense tales of human suffering, the demands placed on poor and untrained family care-givers, and the never-ending struggle to provide adequate palliative care. You cannot be unmoved by the stories she tells, and you will come away with a renewed belief in the indomitable human spirit.
Brian R., Amazon Review
Page-turning reality
This research by a cancer nurse made me a participant, feeling the difficult interactions among those at a palliative cancer care hospital in India. As a non health professional, I was engrossed in the work of the nurses where resources are extremely limited, and I connected with the honest stories shared with care and warmth.