Post-mortem Practices of Reconstructing a ‘Good Death’ in Nursing Homes in Switzerland
In Swiss nursing homes, current practices of “doing death” (Soom Ammann et al. 2016) are strongly influenced by the contemporary Western normative concept of “good death,” which focusses on a self-determined dying in dignity, awareness and acceptance (Hart et al. 1998). At the same time, institutional old age care is confronted with societal changes such as rising diversities among both residents and caregivers and the very late admission of residents with often health-related communication restrictions. Using data from a long-term ethnographic field research in Swiss nursing homes, the paper illustrates how caregivers’ efforts to enable a “good death” do not end with the biological death of the resident but further extend to practices of preparing the dead body “nicely.” Presenting two cases of post-mortem care, we first describe caregivers’ practices as typically performed in a case of “good death.” Then, we use the case of a perceived “bad death” to discuss practices of making a death “better” retrospectively. We argue that, especially if relatives do not express wishes for after-death care and/or if institutional regulations on post-mortem care are not highly detailed, caregivers may use a certain scope of interpretation to arrange the dead body in a way that also corresponds to their own notions of a “nice-looking dead body.” We argue that doing so is an important element of staff members’ professional strategies to cope with their repeated experiences of death and dying in the nursing home. We conclude that the described post-mortem care practices of (re)constructing a “good death” should be considered as an integral part of the nursing homes’ overall “doing death” in a highly diversified contemporary Western society like Switzerland.