“Bibliotherapy at the hospital” : a qualitative study of hospital librarians’ insight on bibliotherapy

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of bibliotherapy at hospitals and also what knowledge of and insights on bibliotherapy a few Swedish hospital librarians have. Questions investigated are: What role do the hospital librarians think literature has in the treatment of a patient? What is their view on their role as a hospital librarian and do they believe that they can have a part in the treatment of a patient? Is the concept bibliotherapy commonly used or is there another term in use? How important is the linkage between healing and literature? In this study, the view on bibliotherapy is limited to a hospital perspective. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate bibliotherapy at the hospital. Six qualitative interviews with hospital librarians were performed at three general or combined general/medical hospital libraries. The study shows that the hospital librarians have little knowledge of bibliotherapy and that none of them work with bibliotherapy in an organized form. Literature and its effect on human health is something they all have reflected on, and several of them believe that part of their work could be conceptualized as bibliotherapy. They are convinced that literature can give a patient satisfaction by easing the long hours of waiting and by supplying a sense of identity and insights. The hospital librarians also consider themselves being representatives of the “ordinary world” as they don’t dress in white coats. An important function would then be that the hospital librarian stands out as a human being of flesh and blood that takes the time to see, listen and talk to the patient from a non medical perspective.Uppsatsnivå: