Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Jun 2004
"Symbiotic niceness": constructing a therapeutic relationship in psychosocial palliative care.
The concept of symbiotic niceness illustrates a mutually shared advantage in the nurse-patient relationship. This relationship is premised on the co-production of niceness through the doing of psychosocial care. This paper presents an account of 'symbiotic niceness' produced in palliative care nurses' talk. ⋯ This paper argues that underpinning the co-enactment of symbiotic niceness is the sharedness of patients' and nurses' experiences and a reciprocal notion of therapeutic help. It serves as a means of managing relations between palliative care nurses and dying patients. Symbiotic niceness thus represents a core component of professional and patient identity which works to maintain social orderliness as well as to advance personal, professional and organisational aspirations.