DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i11.027

Pages: 1744-1748

The pioneering works of Cicely Saunders 1960s onwards made Palliative Care (PC) and hospices embrace the end-of-life care needs of patients across the world. In 1986, World Health Organisation defined palliative care as the ‘total active care’ of patients who is not responsive to curative treatment. However, the improvement in anti-cancer treatments and technology enhanced survivals rapidly and made PC more inclusive. WHO radically redefined PC (WHO 2002) as ‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness (…). Although some gaps in palliative care recently surfaced for interdisciplinary research and loosely highlighted in India comprise my research area, through this study, I tried to understand the lived experiences of cancer and how people talk about their illness and treatment experiences, what are the usual problems does one face in this context and how it can be addressed.The data was collected using semi- structured, in-depth interview schedule from purposively selected participants. This phenomenological study was undertaken in a govt. hospital and in a private nursing home of Kolkata, West Bengal; and the collected data was transcribed verbatim to include insider’s perspectives and the findings were organized under the following themes- (i) effective-yet-multiple constructs of care, (ii) in-situ mutual and co-constitutive training, (iii) qualitative research-as-therapeutic care-service, (iv) empathic identifications of PC problems and feasible recommendations. The nature of the content the current article is descriptive, specific and subjective, which tried to understand caregiving from a qualitative perspective and emphasises that qualitative methodologies may be beneficial in enhancing the capabilities of palliative care and subjective well- being.