Hope for Hispanic patients in the context of hospice: the impact of narratives of future oriented stories of hope in the experience of anticipatory grief for Hispanic Roman Catholic hospice patients in the Fort Worth area

Abstract

Research shows that ethnic minorities access hospice care less often than Caucasians. In part this issue has been attributed to the lack of cultural competence among hospice staff. The purpose of this pastoral theological study is to examine how pastoral caregivers can work more effectively by attending to cultural context of Hispanics in the United States. The project examines the meaning attached to the stories of hope for six Roman Catholic Hispanic hospice patients in the Fort Worth area in order to find out how their belief system about the future has an impact on their anticipatory grief or waiting experience. In order to establish the context, this project introduces the pastoral challenge by identifying the Hispanic population in the United States and the cultural problems they face at the end-of-life. Second, the project describes the pastoral theological method and research design proposed by James and Evelyn Whitehead, who suggest three stages of the theological method (attending, assertion, and action) and three sources of information (experience, tradition and culture). Third, a dialogue between the three sources of information proposed by the Whiteheads and the experience of the participant patients. The written project is organized according to how the patients experience and interpret their stories of hope in three different ways: as fullness of life, as ambiguous-multiple future stories with limited life, and as future stories with no life. This project concludes by suggesting that the use of narrative theory is a helpful approach for pastoral caregivers in order to maintain culturally sensitive conversations with Hispanic patients at the end-of-life while being mindful of how their future stories have an impact on hope during the waiting experience.