CICELY SAUNDERS: THE FOUNDER OF THE MODERN HOSPICE MOVEMENT PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Shirley Du Boulay, Marianne Rankin | 320 pages | 01 Sep 2007 | SPCK Publishing | 9780281058891 | English | London, United Kingdom Remembering Dame Cicely Saunders: Founder of Hospice Nursing Times. As a building can allow one to shelter in space, it can also allow one to shelter in time. For Saunders, the importance of St. In the brochure, a specific section is dedicated to emphasising the modern scientific medicine that will be practiced, and improved, at St. As outlined in The Need , research into pain and other symptoms specific to the terminally ill was to be an important aspect of the work conducted at St. To this end, Saunders specifically incorporated a post-mortem room and wrote to the Borough Coroner to ascertain any special requirements he might have. By including this room, Cicely provided the space to conduct evidence-based research — important for a fledgling medical field to gain acceptance and authority in its treatments from medical colleagues and others. These studies showed that pain described by patients could be due to more than just the primary cancer — in contrast to what was widely believed — and that pain control should be based on careful assessment of pain to identify the most appropriate medical treatment, be it further surgery or medication. Robert Twycross [38] who conducted clinical research into pain at St. The Hospice provided a ready subset of patients for clinical trials, whilst the high standards of the purpose-built facility— matching those of the National Health Service — arguably added credence to any data that was published from the Hospice. Not only did St. During his visit he spoke to patients at St. He came away from St. From the beginning, Saunders identified St. By focusing on the design of St. This was in no small part due to Saunders herself, who envisioned in great detail and with great accuracy the final building and its wards, the bed layout, the need for flexible spaces to encourage both interaction and privacy. Architect Peter Smith provided a modernist interpretation of her ideas, a notable example of being the cantilevered day space with curtains which could provide a walkway of open space, or separate wards and rooms for privacy. The lasting impact of St. This was a community of the staff, linked with a community of the patients who also provided support for each other and spreading wider into the local neighbourhood — links with teaching hospitals to spread the hospice philosophy. So, can a building make a difference? For Saunders it was a necessary part of the hospice philosophy:. Beauty is very healing. It makes patients see that the creation to which they also belong is good — it can be trusted. As far as the author can tell, this term was not instigated by Saunders herself, but rather applied retrospectively. Summers, and Neville Teller. Box 7. Progress Reports: The Birth of the Clinic Abingdon: Routledge, , xv. Weaver New York: Knopf, , Hospital Planning New York: F. The hospice philosophy developed at St. Progress reports: A New English Hospice. Cicely Saunders London: Hodder and Stoughton, , The medical field that arose out of the hospice movement is now known as Palliative Medicine. Progress in Pain Research and Management, Vol. Dr Robert Twycross joined St. The USA tour was chosen because of its historical significance in the development of the international hospice movement and the rich documentary resources available, including reports, diary entries and correspondence from the trip. Why StoryMap:. When we were planning this project we considered using other potential platforms to demonstrate new ways of communicating and visualising archives. The reason for choosing StoryMap suited the type of narrative that we wanted to present as the focus was more on the destinations in the tour rather than duration. Whilst frustrating it does highlight one of the issues involved in these projects. While these sites are relatively easy to use they require a decent level of computer literacy and this work was certainly made easier by the expertise of our intern, Kai, who was studying for a Masters in Digital Humanities at the time. The tour was beneficial to all parties: for Saunders, it provided her with a wealth of new ideas, access to large network of related health care professions and reinforced her own convictions; whilst for those she met, it provided a catalyst for bringing together and inspiring people to push for better care for the dying and chronically ill. My aim for attending the conference was to see the current research being undertaken in oral history and what role archives and archivists were taking in providing access to these historical resources. The next two days were a refreshing and stimulating experience on how current research is increasingly conscious of the need to incorporate archival practices and how digital technology is driving improved access to collections which both academic historians and archivists are having to adapt to. This was a new feature to the conference that gave the first indication how archives were being actively promoted by the society. The presenters gave an overview of the workflow procedures that the Sound Archive used for processing oral history collections; from record creation to long term preservation and cataloguing guidelines. The following discussions conveyed numerous helpful practical suggestions for individual projects, in particular focusing on the legal and ethical implications of interviews and how to address potentially libellous recording. The panel discussions reflected the diverse methodologies used in current oral history research. The sessions raised the issues of the constructed nature of memory; conflict between experience and historical narrative and the role of emotion within personal histories. He described how digital technologies were transforming the way we access oral histories and creating a global audience for them through harnessing web-based open source systems to facilitate searching. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries, was remarkable as it showed how intelligent use of indexing could allow thousands of oral history recorded interviews to be made both available and accessible to researchers. He noted however, that increased access and exposure of collections does increase risk of digital content being manipulated and copyright infringed by malicious users through re-editing of recordings. The main reflection that I took away from the conference was the heartening news that the importance of record keeping in the oral history community was particularly strong notably in terms of long term preservation, copyright and sensitivity issues and securing a suitable repository for new material. She had studied medicine as a third profession, specifically to do something about the problem of pain in patients dying of cancer. In , she was 40 years old, unmarried, and a committed Christian whose evangelical orientation was beginning to broaden. She had gained experience in the care of the dying as a nurse, social worker, volunteer, and researcher. However, at this time she was still seeking to clarify her initial ideas, striving to create a programme for action, and working hard to realize her vision. Crucial to this process was the question of the religious and spiritual foundation of the institution she was to establish. The issue had come early onto the agenda, after she had first raised it in while on a personal retreat at the Mother House of the Church of England, order of St Mary the Virgin, at Wantage, Berkshire. Subsequently, as she assembled around her a group of friends and associates who might help in her quest to found a new home for dying people, she quizzed them in turn on the question of religious priorities. Throughout the early part of , there were numerous meetings, and extended correspondence with a clutch of evangelically inclined Anglican p. By the end of the year, enough clarity had emerged that was sufficient to take the project forward. Though the protagonists were likely unaware of it, their deliberations were also to have a profound influence upon the later development of what became known as the hospice movement. Entitled The Scheme , it set out de novo the structure and organization of a modern terminal care home containing 60 beds, together with staffing levels, capital and revenue costs, and contractual arrangements. In this place, the patron saint of travellers would thus accompany those making their final earthly journey. Led by their enthusiasm, and the inspiration and energy of Cicely Saunders herself, they set about raising funds to bring the enterprise to realization. Shirley du Boulay, 10 in her biography of Cicely Saunders, correctly argues that it was the connection with Dr Olive Wyon, then a retired theologian living in Cambridge, which did much to clarify a major issue that Cicely Saunders was grappling with at this time—the precise character of the proposed venture as a community and, in particular, the relationship between its religious orientation and medical practice. Her letter set out some of the background. I am tremendously impressed by the love and care with which the Irish Sisters give to our patients—something more than an ordinary group of professional women could ever give, I think. But I was not really thinking of anything nearly so definite as a real new Community, I think I was using the term in a much less technical way. I asked Sister Penelope if I was attempting the impossible to hope that a secular group of people without any kind of rule would be able to hold together and give the feeling of security, which I want so much to help our patients … So I am really p. On the spiritual side, I know that the spiritual work is of paramount importance and while it goes hand in hand all the time with our medical work, it is the only lasting help that we can give to our people … I feel that the work should be a definitely Church of England one rather than interdenominational and that it must be widely based in the Church, and not just in one wing.