ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the strategies and approaches staff used and relied on at the bedside in the care of people living with dementia. It founds the rehearsal and duplication of remarkably stable patterns of interactional performance during the routines of bedside care, particularly for this patient group. The institutional hierarchies and the organisation of these wards also appeared to prevent communication between ward staff and also between staff and people living with dementia. Despite the typically fast pace and busy nature of the work within these wards, and the detailed interactional work involved in care delivery, much work within the ward and at the bedside was often carried out in silence. Across these wards, staff talk to patients living with dementia at the bedside typically addressed the person by locating and reorientating them very clearly in relation to the reality of where they were, what had happened to them, and the expectations of the institution.
