Paper: Dignity: The Challenge for Nurses in Long Stay Older Adult Units (19th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Tuesday, 8 July 2008: 1:55 PM

Jill Murphy, MSc , Nursing and Midwifery, Limerick University, Limerick, Ireland

Learning Objective 1: understand the concept of dignity and have an awareness of how to deliver care whilst maintaining the older adults dignity .

Learning Objective 2: change healthcare practice to reflect individual beliefs and person centred care .

Dignity is the central phenomenon of nursing .However nursing has not operationally defined dignity and there appears to be only one tool claiming to measure dignity. Evidence suggests that the health care system has failed in certain nursing care interventions to maintain dignity in long stay units for the older adult, a factor attributed to the abstract concept of dignity and precise definition..

A quantitative descriptive study of registered general nurses perceptions of dignity working in long stay units for the older adult in Ireland. Sixty nurses working in eight long stay units for the older adult returned a postal questionnaire, describing how nurses perceive dignity whilst delivering care to the older adult. The author completed a preliminary concept analysis resulting in three attributes of dignity being used to develop the questionnaire.

Nurses maintained patient's dignity on long stay units for the older adult. However areas where nurses compromised older patient's dignity were highlighted in this study, which included dignity being compromised when administering medication, feeding, and toileting and maintaining hygiene.

Recommendations include developing a tool to measure the concept of dignity. By conducting further studies in long stay older adult units and testing the effects of nursing interventions a higher awareness of dignity may occur.

Chocinov, H. M., Hack, T. McClement, S., Kristjanson, L., and Harlos, M. (2002). Dignity in the terminally ill: A developing empirical model. Social Science and Medicine, 54, 433-443.

Jacobs, B. B. (2001). Respect for Human Dignity: A central phenomenon to philosophically unite nursing theory and practice. Advances in Nursing Science .24 (1), 17-35.

Sholton, I. & Seedhouse, D. (1998). Practical Dignity in Caring. Nursing Ethics .5 (3) 246-255.

Jacobs, B. B. (2001). Respect for Human Dignity: A central phenomenon to philosophically unite nursing theory and practice. Advances in Nursing Science .24 (1), 17-35.

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