Dignity and Nursing Care

The guiding principles of Catholic Social Teaching have the overarching, dominating theme of human dignity (Condit, 2016, p. 371). The focus is, that human beings were formed in God’s image and in return, humanities purpose is to follow in God’s footsteps and portray the same love and grace (Coleman, 2008) (Condit, 2016, p. 371). Consequently, this affects how human beings interact with each other, requiring commitment, to look after, encourage, maintain and promote each other (Coleman, 2008) (Herbert, 2016, p. 7). One way to apply, this Catholic Social Teaching of human dignity, is to understand the nurse’s relationship with the patient. Nurses need to approach the patient with respect and maintain the person’s privacy, acknowledging that they are a fellow human being, with their own personal characteristics and beliefs (Condit, 2016, p. 371) (Walsh & Kowanko, 2002, p. 143-144, 149).

Dignity must be at the centre of everything we do if we are to achieve high quality person centred care and support, dignity focuses on the value of every person as an individual it means respecting others views, choices and decisions, not making assumptions about how people want to be treated and working with care and compassion. The principles focus on the key values,attitudes,skills and knowledge required to provide the best care possible, the principles give the workforce and those employ and train them clear guidance and practical tools to understanding how to place dignity at the

During my placement during at an aged care facility, it was an important process to ensure that nursing interventions were carried out to ensure a respectful behaviour of a resident’s dignity, culture, values beliefs and

Healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to respect patient’s wishes. Consequently, many legal and ethical dilemmas arise in healthcare in response to clinical decisions related to the needs, beliefs, and preferences of patients and families. Other dilemmas result over concerns about the integrity, competence, or actions of other healthcare professionals. Preserving human dignity, relieving suffering, equality, integrity, and accountability are essential nursing values (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, 2015). Nurse leaders have an

I make sure that individuals are provided with care by making sure they are clean, rested, fed and that they are supported in their intellectual, social and emotional needs. You communicate with other people to provide seamless care such as arranging and attending appointments or carrying out treatments.

An underlining principle that forms all nursing practice is respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals. (Jimenez-Lopez, Roales-Nieto, Seco, Preciado, 2016) Nurses are to always treat all patients with dignity. For example, closing doors before you start providing patient care. It’s also essential as a nurse to respect patients regardless of their background, race, culture, value system, or spiritual belief. (Jimenez-Lopez, et al., 2016)

dignity of the patient are essential components of caring. Caring in nursing is there to meet the

Human dignity is respect for an individual regardless of sex, race, or gender. This ethical principle promotes respect for life, freedom and privacy. A nurse can promote dignity by providing patient privacy during nursing care procedures, allowing independence, and upholding the cleanliness of the patient. For the nurse, human dignity does not only apply to patients but also to our peer and colleagues. The nursing student can promote human dignity by being respectful to his or her fellow classmates, faculty, and staff. They can also promote dignity by decreasing prejudice, judgment and competition among students (Shaw & Degazon, 2008).

Furthermore, integrity is very important in the nursing profession because it represents moral principles, honesty and sincerity. Nurses demonstrate integrity every day; most importantly, integrity is illustrated in every action in a nurse’s role. Hence, integrity is accepting responsibilities for one’s actions and helping rather than harming. The best example for integrity in the nursing filed is not leaving undone duties from one shift to another, this is best described as helping one another instead of making it difficult for each other. Another important aspect of caring is human dignity, which is described as the right to be treated with honor and respect. People should not be judged or classified; accordingly, no matter how a person’s appearance is illustrated, every human being has the right to be treated with dignity by demonstrating honor and respect. Culture has a great impact in today’s society, different cultures have unequal believes; thus, nurse’s need to respect those believes and provide quality care for those patients accordingly. For instance, in some cultures people do not believe in certain medications; as a result, the

Being respectful and considerate to your patient is necessary for providing excellent patient care. It is also important to be respectful and considerate to your colleagues; arriving on time, being a team player, doing above the minimum as often as you can are all excellent ways to show this. It is essential to ensure that the workplace is an “environment in which all colleagues enjoy equal respect and where they can advance to their full potential.” (Professionalism initiative, 2012) If everyone treated their colleagues with respect, it would make the workplace very hospitable and help provide better patient care, which is the main purpose of nursing. An environment without respect can become hostile and impair the growth of your colleagues and yourself which can lead to giving substandard care to your patients and their families.

Dignity and respect is used to incorporate all aspects of the family, their values, beliefs, cultural backgrounds and knowledge. As health

George Santayana once said, “Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand”. The term dignity is defined as a state of being worthy of honor or respect and self-respect. Dignity is an important characteristic to have. Without dignity, one does not have the strength and self-respect needed to do what is best for them. My cousin, Dianna, is dignified because she handles herself with grace, she walked away from a toxic relationship, and she responds to hate with love.

Human dignity goes along with my expression of altruism in my life. I express human dignity very similar to the way I express altruism, but I express this value further in my work. One main way I express this is through the provision of modesty and privacy in all ways possible while caring for patients. It is as simple as using least exposing methods and being respectful and professional when providing care. I also respect human dignity by giving my patients the power of choice and respecting the wishes that they express. I believe this is important because the hospital environment leaves people vulnerable to have their dignity ignored. Nursing researchers Papastavrou, Efstathiou, and Andreou (2017) describe this problem by stating “threats to health were considered more important than those to dignity and the older people endured threats to dignity in favour of treating the health problem” (p. 94). With this in mind, I work particularly hard to find ways to uphold human dignity always in my work and throughout my life.

Human dignity states that the patient’s privacy will be protected, and the confidentiality of the patient and healthcare providers will be preserved (Taylor et al., 2011). I see this as extremely important with nurses as they are providing care first handedly. Because they see some gruesome and embarrassing things that should not get reported around the hospital, they should respect the privacy and desire for these patients to not get spoken about to other healthcare providers except on a need-to-know basis. Providing the privacy to these patients shows them that you respect them as an individual and that they feel they are being cared for uniquely (Taylor et al.

Primary Health Care rests on the basis of conserving patient dignity and ensuring that one is able to emphasize and act on this empathy in order to bring about meaningful change. However, much like in the above scenario empathy is a difficult concept for many health professionals to grasp. With the aid of the scenario and prescribed readings, I will examine the ABCDs (attitude, behavior, compassion and dialogue) of Dignity-conserving care which enables one to empathize with a patient in order to treat them in an effective way. In doing so I will examine my own thoughts and feelings towards the scenario and critically self-reflect in order to depict its importance for professional development as well as its value in my progression towards an integrated health professional.