Living and Dying in Nursing Home
by Jaber F. Gubrium
Category: Social Science

Living and Dying at Murray Manor is a classic text that documents how the "work" of everyday life in a nursing home is accomplished. Jaber F. Gubrium spent several months at a nursing home as a participant-observer, involved in activities ranging from performing menial "toileting" work to serving as a gerontologist at staff meetings. The result is not a survey of statistics about nursing homes but an examination of the social organization of care in a single home the author calls Murray Manor. Gubrium's research reveals how staff, clientele, relatives, visiting physicians, and funeral directors negotiated their respective roles, needs, and goals- and how, in the end, Murray Manor emerged as an organized social entity.