Martin Woods

Citation

Thesis Title
Parental resistance: Mobile and transitory discourses. A discursive analysis of parental resistance towards medical treatment for a seriously ill child

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Mr Woods investigated the ‘mobile and transitory’ discourses at play in instances of resistance between parents of seriously ill children, physicians and nurses within health care institutions. His qualitative study provides alternative ways of perceiving and therefore understanding these disagreements. His thesis obtained information from established literature, media and legal sources, and interviews with parents, doctors and nurses. It was argued that parental resistance is an omnipresent but transitory occurrence that affects many of the interactions between the parents of seriously ill children and clinical staff. ‘Seeds of this resistance’ are sown in both critical decision making situations and in everyday occurrences between doctors, nurses and parents within healthcare institutions. It was proposed that parents who resist treatment for their child illustrate how normative healthcare relationships issues are codified, constructed and crafted through everyday discourses and practices within health care settings

Supervisors
Professor Julie Boddy
Dr Suzanne Phibbs