title: . . . that the social order prevails: death, ritual and the 'Roman' nurse.
abstract: In this article, the importance of ritual as a collective response to death is discussed. A case example, taken from a larger ethnographic study, is used to explore the responses and reactions of a group of Italian nurses to death as it occurs within an intensive care unit in Rome, Italy. The material presented is used to analyse the significance that cultural, religious and social beliefs and quasi-beliefs can have in nursing practice. The issues highlighted in this examination of the place of ritual in death are located and discussed within their highly specific cultural context and suggest that, where emphasis remains on nurses as a collective rather than on the individual nurse, ritual acts to ensure that social and moral order prevails.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goopy
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology*; D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology*; D002410:Catholicism / Q000523:psychology; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology*; D005655:Funeral Rites / Q000523:psychology*; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012384:Rome; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012933:Social Identification; D012944:Social Support; D012951:Socialization; D013483:Superstitions / Q000523:psychology; D013561:Symbolism