ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the research results that underscore how strikingly different are the modes and courses of dying on different types of wards in hospitals. The course of dying—or “dying trajectory” of each patient has at least two outstanding properties. First, it takes place over time: It has duration. Specific dying trajectories can vary greatly in duration. Second, a trajectory has shape: It can be graphed. It plunges straight down; it moves slowly but steadily downward; it vacillates slowly, moving slightly up and down before diving downward radically; it moves slowly down at first, then hits a long plateau, then plunges abruptly to death. Dying trajectories themselves are perceived, rather than the actual courses of dying. After the body and family are gone from the ward, there remains only the staff’s disposition of the patient’s story among themselves.
