Imperial College London
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Dr Giskin Day

Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Centre

Principal Teaching Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

giskin.day Website CV

 
 
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Assistant

 

Ms Carly Line +44 (0)20 7594 5178

 
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Location

 

305ARoyal College of ScienceSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Day:2019:10.1136/medhum-2019-011679,
author = {Day, G},
doi = {10.1136/medhum-2019-011679},
journal = {Medical Humanities},
pages = {288--298},
title = {Enhancing relational care through expressions of gratitude: insights from a historical case study of almoner-patient correspondence},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2019-011679},
volume = {46},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This paper considers insights for contemporary medical practice from an archival study of gratitude in letters exchanged between almoners at London's Brompton Hospital and patients treated at the Hospital's tuberculosis sanatorium in Frimley. In the era before the National Health Service, almoners were responsible for assessing the entitlement of patients to charitable treatment, but they also took on responsibility for aftercare and advising patients on all aspects of welfare. In addition, a major part of the work of almoners at the Brompton was to record the health and employment status of former sanatorium patients for medical research. Of over 6000 patients treated between 1905 and 1963 that were tracked for the purposes of Medical Research Council cohort studies, fewer than 6% were recorded as 'lost to follow-up'-a remarkable testimony to the success of the almoners' strategies for maintaining long-term patient engagement. A longitudinal narrative case study is presented with illustrative examples of types of gratitude extracted from a corpus of over 1500 correspondents' letters. Patients sent money, gifts and stamps in gratitude for treatment received and for the almoners' ongoing interest in their welfare. Textual analysis of letters from the almoner shows the semantic strategies that position gratitude as central to the personalisation of an institutional relationship. The Brompton letters are conceptualised as a Maussian gift-exchange ritual, in which communal ties are created, consolidated and extended through the performance of gratitude. This study implicates gratitude as central to the willingness of former patients to continue to engage with the Hospital, sometimes for decades after treatment. Suggestions are offered for how contemporary relational healthcare might be informed by this unique collection of patients' and almoners' voices.
AU  - Day,G
DO  - 10.1136/medhum-2019-011679
EP  - 298
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 1468-215X
SP  - 288
TI  - Enhancing relational care through expressions of gratitude: insights from a historical case study of almoner-patient correspondence
T2  - Medical Humanities
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2019-011679
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31586010
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/82469
VL  - 46
ER  -
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