Abstract
Introduction:Dignity is a core value in nursing. Nursing education shall prepare students for ethical professional practice and facilitate insight into the phenomenon of dignity and its significance. There is limited knowledge about how nursing students discover dignity in their education.Research aim:The aim of the study is to develop an understanding of how nursing students discover and acquire dignity.Research design:The study has a hermeneutic approach where qualitative interviews of nursing students were employed. The process of interpretation was inspired by text of Fleming, Gaidys and Robbs.Participants and research context:Nineteen nursing students agreed to be included in the study, representing six different campuses at three different educational institutions. All were in the final year of their study. The interviews took place at the educational institutions.Ethical considerations:The educational institutions facilitated recruitment of the students who signed voluntarily for participation and continuous informed consent. The study was approved by The Norwegian Center of Reporting Data (NSD). The research recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki were followed.Findings:The nursing students discovered the expression and significance of dignity through experiences, gained through introspection and in interaction with others during the education.Discussion:The findings are discussed using Gadamer’s concept of experience and how experiences can create new insight. In particular, the students’ experiences with the inner ethical and external aesthetic dimension of dignity are discussed.Conclusion:The study shows that students discovered the inner ethical dignity through experiencing vulnerability, pride and shame. They discovered the external aesthetic dignity through incidents, where they experienced both to be confirmed and not to be confirmed, and through observation of good or bad role models. Crucial negative and positive experiences are important for discovering the expression and significance of dignity.
Highlights
Dignity is a core value in nursing
The importance of dignity is emphasized in the Code of Ethics of Nursing[4] and is incorporated in the nursing education that prepares the students for ethical professional practice.[5]
The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how nursing students discover and acquire dignity
Summary
Dignity is a core value in nursing. Nursing education shall prepare students for ethical professional practice and facilitate insight into the phenomenon of dignity and its significance. Findings: The nursing students discovered the expression and significance of dignity through experiences, gained through introspection and in interaction with others during the education. A general belief is that dignity means having an inhabiting value.[1] Dignity is described as a human need, a value, a collection of values, a competence or a skill Humans can both experience and convey dignity.[6] This shows that dignity is complex and diverse.[7,8] dignity often appears as something vague and abstract, can often be taken for granted, treated superficially and be devalued.[8,9] Due to the complexity of dignity, it is difficult to know how dignity can be expressed and how students gain insight into the phenomenon.[1,10]
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