Dignity at work in the NHS

Nursing ethics, 2012

This review aimed to explore nursing literature and research on dignity in care of inpatients and to evaluate how the care patients received in the hospital setting was related to perceived feelings of being dignified or undignified. Studies conducted between 2000 and 2010 were considered, using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and MEDLINE, and the search terms 'patient dignity', 'dignity in care', 'human dignity and nursing' and 'dignity and nursing ethics'. Findings revealed, from the perspectives of nurses and patients, that dignity in care in the hospital setting is seen to be influenced by physical environment, staff attitude and behaviour, organisational culture and patient independence. This review can help nurses to better understand dignity in care, and for policy makers, there are implications about determining the physical environment, staff attitude and behaviour and organisational culture needed to promote patient dignity in nursing. By identifying the most important factors from patients' and nurses' perspectives that contribute to dignity in care, nursing interventions, such as campaigns and education in clinical practice, can be developed. Downloaded from expectations for dignity in the health-care system with regard to ending unnecessary invasions of privacy. Moreover, they indicated that nurses should discuss measures that enhance dignity in care and the reasons they do not implement dignity-promoting measures.

Sushruta Journal of Health Policy & Opinion, 2022

BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) as an organisation actively promotes the diversity, equality and inclusion of all healthcare professionals. As an organisation which encompasses a majority of ethnic minority members, we hear the unfortunate experiences of bullying, harassment and discrimination that takes place in numerous healthcare settings within the UK. In response to these lived experiences, a committee was appointed to establish a set of standards, to foster dignity within the workplace, using the large body of literature documents available. The ambition of this project is to advocate and advertise for an environment that is free from bullying and harassment and to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards bullying or harassment. We aim to do this by developing, implementing, and evaluating our Dignity@Work Standards. The Standards constitutes of 8 different domains for all healthcare professionals including managerial members to adopt in clinical practi...

Nursing Ethics, 2014

Background: The concept of dignity can be divided into two main attributes: absolute dignity that calls for recognition of an inner worth of persons and social dignity that can be changeable and can be lost as a result of different social factors and moral behaviours. In this light, the nursing profession has a professional dignity that is to be continually constructed and re-constructed and involves both main attributes of dignity. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine how nurses described nursing's professional dignity in internal medicine and surgery departments in hospital settings. Research design: The research design was qualitative. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the ethics committees of the healthcare organizations involved. All the participants were provided with information about the purpose and the nature of the study. Participants: A total of 124 nurses participated in this study. Method: The data were collected using 20 focus group sessions in different parts of Italy. The data were analysed by means of a conventional inductive content analysis starting from the information retrieved in order to extract meaning units and sorting the arising phenomena into conceptually meaningful categories and themes. Results: Nursing's professional dignity was deeply embedded in the innermost part of individuals. Regarding the social part of dignity, a great importance was put on the values that compose nursing's professional identity, the socio-historical background and the evolution of nursing in the area considered. The social part of dignity was also linked to collaboration with physicians and with healthcare assistants who Downloaded from were thought to have a central role in easing work strain. Equally important, though, was the relationship with peers and senior nurses. Conclusion: The organizational environments under scrutiny with their low staffing levels, overload of work and hierarchical interactions did not promote respect for the dignity of nurses. To understand these professional values, it is pivotal to comprehend the role of different health professions in their cultural milieu and the evolution of the nursing profession in diverse countries.

International Journal of Nursing Practice, 2002

It is generally agreed in the nursing literature that the maintenance of patient dignity is an important element of nursing care that is highly valued by patients. Despite this, dignity is seldom defined and there are few guidelines that nurses may use in their practice to safeguard individual patients' dignity. This phenomenological study aimed to uncover patients' and nurses' perceptions of dignity, formulate a definition of dignity based on the experience of patients and nurses, and identify nursing practices that maintain or compromise patient dignity. The study found that the characteristics nurses associated with dignity were many and varied. Important elements in the meaning the nurses ascribed to the notion of patient dignity were the elements of respect, privacy, control, advocacy and time. The themes which emerged from the patient interviews were similar to those which emerged from the interviews with nurses. The characteristics that patients attributed to dignity and its maintenance included respect, privacy, control, choice, humour and matter-of-factness.

International journal of older people nursing, 2010

To explore the relationship between nurses' understanding of dignity and how it is enhanced and developed in their practice environment. Dignity is a ubiquitous concept in an era of healthcare reform yet is referred to almost exclusively in terms of the quality of care delivered to support the experience of the patient rather than the caregivers engaged in the relationships of care. This article focuses on dignity in the professional life of nurses in aged care. This is part of a doctoral study of the implementation of a palliative approach in residential aged care using emancipatory practice development methodology. Constructions of dignity were co-created with participants through creative reflective activities and subsequently analysed using reflexive methods and data from other sources within the study. Constructions of dignity and subsequent actions taken by nurses on their own behalf to articulate their experiences of transforming practice are interconnected with dignity e...

Eidos: A Journal for the Philosophy of Culture, 2019

It stands to reason that a criterion is needed that can serve as a common denominator for weighing or assessing different values or ideals. Dignity is offered as a possible candidate, to be presented from religio-legal and cross-cultural vantages. A definition will be offered for dignity and its parts defended throughout the paper. The approach is not only not rigorously analytic -there are no case studies -but is instead a presentation of topic areas where we should expect to find the concept of dignity to be relevant. Utilizing a rights-moral and duties-ethical framework, it is in essence an argument for further elevating the prestige of dignity so that it might provide a widely-accepted groundwork for ethics and morality.

Journal of Research in Nursing, 2021

Background Patients have a right to be treated with dignity. However, reports have continually identified concerns regarding the quality of care and dignity in hospitals. Undignified care can have unfavourable impact on the patient’s recovery such as leading to depression and loss of will to live. The aim of this study was to explore dignity as perceived by patients and nurses within hospital and community environments. Methods An integrative review methodological approach was adopted. Nine databases including Medline, CINAHL plus with full text, Web of Science, Embase, Pubmed, Psycinfo, Scopus, Nursing and Allied Health Source, and Science Direct were systematically searched for relevant articles using a predetermined set of inclusion criteria. Articles were included if they were primary empirical studies, peer reviewed, published between 2008–2019, assessing patients’ or nurses’ perception of dignity outside the end-of-life context, conducted in one of the European countries and w...

Revista Bioética, 2019

We know today that positive health outcomes derive from the intersection of various factors such as valuation and respect; involvement in decisions, positive self-esteem, and the ability to exercise control over one's own life by pointing out that the individual's perspective on dignity is a central element in high-quality care. Dignity is a complex concept, difficult to define for lack of clarity of what the concept implies, but it is fundamental in Nursing courses. This theoretical article intends to present the narrative review about the concept of dignity in Nursing care, carried out in the context of the PhD in Nursing, at