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Life and Death in Intensive Care

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Life and Death in Intensive Care

By: Joan Cassell
Narrated by: Laura Jennings
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About this listen

Life and Death in Intensive Care offers a unique portrait of the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the place in medical centers and hospitals where patients with the gravest medical conditions - from comas to terminal illness - are treated. Author Joan Cassell employs the concept of moral economies to explain the dilemmas that patients, families, and medical staff confront in treatment. Drawing upon her fieldwork conducted in both the United States and New Zealand, Cassell compares the moral outlooks and underlying principles of SICU nurses, interns, doctors, and surgeons. Using real life examples, Life and Death in Intensive Care clearly presents the logic and values behind the SICU as well as the personalities, procedures, and pressures that characterize every case. Ultimately, Cassell demonstrates the differing systems of values, and the way cultural definitions of medical treatment inform how we treat the critically ill.

©2005 Joan Cassell (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks Emergency & Critical Care Medicine & Health Care Industry Policy & Administration Sociology Surgery

Critic reviews

"Cassell's book deserves a wide audience both in and beyond medical sociology." ( The American Journal of Sociology)
"A valuable addition to our growing understanding of our technology - and bureaucracy - intensive hospital system." (Charles E. Rosenberg, Harvard University)
All stars
Most relevant
I loved everything about this book, and found all aspects of it intriguing.
I will probably listen to it again, as it goes right to the top of my list and there is so much to take in. The author demonstrates a deep love of her profession, but doesn't hesitate to describe the less functional areas that occur, and how they are felt with.

Excellent!

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