Trøstens dramaturgi

This essay illuminates the phenomenon of consolation, by exploring how consolation may manifest for healthcare professionals in specialist health services where patient encounters are time delimited. The empirical material consists of oncology nurses’ narratives from encounters with patients in an outpatient context. Through a phenomenological analysis, a movement emerges within these encounters that evokes associations with a dramaturgy in three acts. The three acts of consolation are further described as: Openings, Going with the flow and a shift in rhythm. The findings are interpreted in light of the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s theory of Resonance and the acceleration of modernity. Rosa offers a vocabulary for what may occur when we as human beings allow ourselves to be affected, and how we may experience transformation in encounters with an Other. With this perspective, attention is also directed towards the possibilities of consolation inherent in encounters between oncology nurses and patients, even when time is constrained.