The Culture of Long Term Care by J Neil Henderson & Maria D Vesperi

This is the only collection
of its kind to offer an inside view of life and work in contemporary nursing
homes with the purpose of developing a theory of the culture of long term
care. The anthropological research in nursing homes presented here produces a
seldom seen native view of patients, staff, and the day-to-day workings of
American nursing homes. The use of ethnographic methods penetrates the
reality barriers found in industry descriptions, muck-raking discourse, and
general societal aversion toward nursing homes. The tensions found between
and within staff culture and patient culture are explored in terms of
adaptations to institutional life in the context of current policy and the
larger American ageist culture.