7 research outputs found
Disasters that Matter: Gifts of Life in the Arena of International Diplomacy
This article examines the bodily donations made by Greeks, Turks and Cypriots to the victims of two devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Greece (1999), as well as to a Greek and a Turkish Cypriot boy, both suffering from leukemia (2000). Considering the age old discourse of amity and enmity shared by the citizens of the three nation states, I ask what made them see these hardly rare events as exceptionally important, and rush to offer each other their blood and body organs. Politicians and journalists of the time presented these corporeal responses as "civil society's demand for brotherly rapprochement," thus underscoring the anthropological insight that contemporary identity politics is increasingly "medicalized". Taking into consideration both the medical regimes of truth that made these donations possible, and the painful political experiences lived and remembered by Greeks, Turks and Cypriots to this day, I argue that the conciliation these donors performed revealed the suspense of their faith in the reconciliatory future rather than their acceptance of restorative notions such as brotherhood and rapprochement. Stated otherwise, these donors, being familiar with the euphemistic and the conditional hence pending nature of such political conciliations, dared the Derridian impossible: without endangering the principle of sharing, they opened their bodies to alterity, to their foe's bodies, and hence entertained the possibility of non-predetermined, thus unexpected even incongruous events of memory. 
Intensive Care Nursesâ Experience of Caring in Greece; A Qualitative Study
Background: Whilst nurses and critical care services have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more apparent that intensive care nurses are presented with challenging ethical and clinical decisions and are required to care for individuals with critical illnesses under high-pressure conditions. This is not a new phenomenon. The aim of this study, which was conducted before the outbreak of COVID-19, was to explore the experience of caring through the narratives of intensive care nurses in Greece. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nineteen ICU nurses in Athens. Transcripts were subjected to Braun and Clarkeâs thematic analysis and organised with Atlas.ti v8 QDA software. Results: The intensive care nursesâ experience of caring in Greece encompassed four themes: (A) being âproximalâ, âco-presentâ and caring with empathy, (B) being âresponsibleâ for your patient and negotiating with the doctors, (C) technology and âfighting with all youâve gotâ, and (D) ânot being kept informedâ and disappointment. Conclusions: The narratives of this study highlight that ICU nurses in Greece provide patient-centred and compassionate care. Nurse leaders should develop appropriate healthcare policies so as to ensure the adequate provision of staff, specialist education, and support to nurses working in critical care. Failure to address these issues may lead to poor quality of care and negative patient outcomes