A Time to Live and a Time to Die: Heterotopian Spatialities and Temporalities in a Pediatric Palliative Care Team. Issue 9 (29th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Davis, Christine S.; Snider, Meghan J.; King, Lynná; Shukraft, Allison; Sonda, James D.; Hicks, Laurie; Irvin, Lauren
• Is Part Of: Health communication. Volume 34:Issue 9(2019)
• Page Start: 931
• Page End: 941
• Publication Date: 2019-07-29
• Subjects: Communication in medicine -- Periodicals; Health in mass media -- Periodicals; 362.1014
• DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1443262
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-0236

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The death of a child creates especially poignant feelings and extreme stress, distress, and devastation for family members and healthcare providers. In addition, serious or long-term illness forces a reconstruction of our experiences with time and space. In this paper, we report on a long-term ethnographic study of a Pediatric Palliative Care Team (PPCT). Using the concepts of spatiality and temporality; Deleuze's concepts of smooth and striated spaces; Innis's concepts of space and time biases; Foucault's concept of heterotopian space—places with multiple layers of meaning; and a related concept of heterokairoi—moments in time with multiple possibilities—we consider how the PPCT constructs and reconstructs meaning in the midst of chaos, ethical dilemmas, and heartbreaking choices.