Abstract:
Wandering the Wards provides a detailed and unflinching ethnographic examination of life within the contemporary hospital. It reveals the institutional and ward
cultures that inform the organisation and delivery of everyday care for one of the
largest populations within them: people living with dementia who require urgent
unscheduled hospital care.
Drawing on five years of research embedded in acute wards in the UK, the
authors follow people living with dementia through their admission, shadowing
hospital staff as they interact with them during and across shifts. In a major contribution to the tradition of hospital ethnography, this book provides a valuable
analysis of the organisation and delivery of routine care and everyday interactions at the bedside, which reveal the powerful continuities and durability of ward
cultures of care and their impacts on people living with dementia.
