MAINTAINING PATIENT DIGNITY

Maintaining Patient Dignity

Maintaining Patient Dignity

Introduction

The current and future developments concerning the concept of dignity are also related to the dissolution of the special status of human beings in the world. One of the qualities necessarily connected with human dignity is the special status of human beings in the world. Human beings are categorically different from nonhuman animals, according to this view. It can imply, as it does according to German law, that only a human being is a person and all other beings are things. (Bowling, 2002, 19)

To hurt an animal is to commit damage to a property, a thing. Given the dissolution of the special status of human beings, this estimation becomes implausible, and as such, the categorical difference between human beings and animals vanishes. Hence, there is a need to revise the concept of human dignity to integrate the altered attitude concerning the status of human beings in the world.

In that case, we might already be able to talk of a post human instead of a human dignity. Another option would be to completely get rid of the concept of human dignity, as the qualities related to it are no longer plausible, and given the origin of the concept, it has religious implications, which are also no longer held by a majority of people. (NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement 2010)

Discussion

Discovery interviews can provide vignettes of patients' experiences of privacy and dignity, and findings that are hard to dispute and compel staff to respond. Moreover, many of the issues that patients find upsetting do not require resources or funding to rectify. (NHS Modernisation Agency 2003)

Most clinicians have the best of intentions and are receptive to patients' comments. Allowing patients to tell their stories is not only enlightening and informative for staff, but may also be therapeutic for patients, who may be unable to express their views about personal issues in other ways. (Boyer, 2006, 364)

The dignity challenge

Staffs who want to respect people's dignity should:

Have a zero tolerance of all forms of abuse.

Support service users with the same respect they would want for themselves or members of their families.

Treat every service user as an individual by offering personalised services.

Enable service users to maintain the best possible levels of independence, choice and control.

Listen to service users and support them to express their needs and wants.

Respect service users' right to privacy.

Ensure that service users feel able to complain without fear of retribution.

Engage with family members and carers as care partners.

Assist service users to maintain confidence and high self-esteem.

Act to alleviate service users' loneliness and isolation.

Implications for nurses

Listening to patients does not require planned studies with ethical approval. If nurses are sincere in their desire to ensure patients' dignity, they must emphasise listening to those in their care. (Bridges, 2008, 206)

Critical Analysis

In order to be critical for any research, the issue of importance includes one's own opinion and destructive way of looking into the subject matter. As far as the critique on the article, “Maintaining patient's dignity ...