Importance Of Dignity Research Articles

Using Photographs to Bring Dignity to Patients and Help Clinicians Find Meaning and Joy in Work.

Background: The importance of dignity in health care is well described, yet limited interventions exist to improve dignity, particularly patient-driven interventions. Objectives: To test the hypothesis that patient-selected photographs at the bedside would impact patients' sense of dignity and clinicians' sense of meaningful work, stimulate conversation between patients and clinicians, and serve as a visual and patient-driven complement to the Patient Dignity Question (PDQ). Methods: Patients admitted to three units at an academic medical center displayed photographs above their head of bed and were interviewed for this study. We used thematic content analysis to compare themes extracted from patient interviews, the PDQ, and clinician surveys. Results: Eight themes emerged from patient interviews (n = 19): conveying goals, joy, capturing the patient's spirit, faith and spirituality, sense of belonging, physical appearance and health, stimulating conversation and meaningful connections, and humanizing the patient. The same themes emerged from the PDQ, with the exception of physical appearance and health. Notably, analysis of the clinician surveys (n = 40) yielded six similar themes: conveying goals, joy, stimulating conversation and meaningful connections, humanizing the patient, meaningful work, and compassion and empathy. Conclusions: Patient-selected photographs at the bedside impact both patients and clinicians by stimulating conversation and meaningful connections, humanizing patients, and fostering meaning and joy in work. Photographs and the PDQ provide a similar window into personhood, thereby supporting the use of a photograph as a visual and patient-driven complement to the PDQ.

Restoring the dignity of indigenous people: Perspectives on tourism employment

The importance of dignity in tourism employment and the positive impact of Indigenous tourism activities are increasingly acknowledged. Nevertheless, the dignity and well-being of Indigenous people in urban tourism workplaces have received limited attention. Drawing on Indigenous Mexicans as a case study, we use cross-disciplinary concepts of dignity and humanistic management to address this gap by developing recommendations for restoring dignity to Indigenous groups through tourism employment in urban destinations. We explore how tourism employment has resulted in violations of the dignity of Indigenous peoples and illustrate how changes in employment practices across economic, sociocultural, and psychological dimensions can contribute to dignity restoration. By doing so, we advance a conceptual understanding of dignity and guide its practical implementation in tourism employment and management, and policy. Finally, we argue that dignity-restoring practices may also result in improved company performance and reputation as well as contribute to the sustainable development goals.

Dignity encounters: the experiences of people with long-term illnesses and their close relatives within a primary healthcare setting.

To describe the experiences of dignity encounters from the perspective of people with long-term illness and their close relatives within a primary healthcare setting. The importance of dignity as a concept in nursing care is well known, and in every healthcare encounter, the patient's dignity has to be protected. A purposive sample of 10 people (5 couples) participated in this qualitative descripted study. One person in each of the couples had a long-term illness. Conjoint interviews were conducted and analyzed with an inductive qualitative content analysis. The analysis resulted in three themes: i) Being supported by an encouraging contact; ii) Being listen to and understood; and iii) Being met with respect. Couples described being encountered with dignity as having accessibility to care in terms of being welcomed with their needs and receiving help. Accessibility promoted beneficial contact with healthcare personnel, who empowered the couples with guidance and support. Couples described a dignity encounter when healthcare personnel confirmed them as valuable and important persons. A dignity encounter was promoted their sense of feeling satisfied with the care they received and promoted safe care. Treated with dignity had a positive impact on the couples' health and well-being and enhanced their sense of a good impression of the healthcare personnel within the primary health care. Healthcare personnel must regard and consider people with long-term illnesses and their close relatives' experiences of dignity encounters to gain an understanding that enables them to support their needs and to know that the care is directed toward them.

Older people's experiences of dignity and support with eating during hospital stays: analytical framework, policies and outcomes

AbstractThere is growing recognition of the importance of dignity and support with eating as markers of high-quality and older-person-centred hospital services. We use data on these markers from the national Adult Inpatient Survey for England to build up statistical evidence on older people's experiences. We find that poor and inconsistent experiences of being treated with dignity and respect, and of receiving support with eating, affect a substantial proportion of inpatients across the vast majority of acute hospital trusts. There has been remarkably little change over time, although small improvements provide some grounds for optimism relating to policy developments in the period following the Francis Inquiry. Amongst people over 65, the prevalence of inconsistent and poor experiences of dignity and support with eating was higher amongst the ‘oldest of the old’ (inpatients aged over 80), individuals who experience a long-standing limiting illness or disability, and women. The highest rates of prevalence were observed amongst disabled women over 80. Perceptions of inadequate nursing quantity and quality, and lack of choice of food, stand out from logistic regression analysis as having consistent, large associations with lack of support with eating. These factors provide potential policy levers since they are within the control of hospitals to a certain extent. In drawing lessons from our analysis for inspection, regulation and monitoring, we highlight the importance of inequalities analysis – including systematic disaggregation and separate identification of at risk sub-groups (e.g. older disabled women) – rather than relying on a ‘population average approach’.

DIGNIDADE HUMANA E VIOLAÇÕES DE DIREITOS EM A HORA DA ESTRELA

O romance A Hora da Estrela, de Clarice Lispector, narra a vida de Macabéa, que tem direitos violados cotidianamente. A narrativa nos leva a pensar sobre a importância da dignidade e a aplicação dos Direitos Humanos. Este trabalho analisa como a temática é abordada no romance, por meio das vivências da protagonista. O romance explicita violações a direitos da mulher, da criança, à alimentação, ao trabalho, ao afeto, à igualdade, a liberdade, entre outras. Clarice Lispector escancara a falta de dignidade humana na vida da protagonista, que ocupa um papel de vítima na sociedade. Assim, entende-se a importância de o indivíduo transpor o lugar de vítima e ocupar a posição de sujeito de direitos, ciente das reivindicações a serem feitas em prol da dignidade. Por meio da análise, concluímos a importância da obra ao expor de forma realista as rotineiras violações aos Direitos Humanos em nossa sociedade.

Dignity as a subject of pedagogical reflection (to the solution of a contemporary issue by means of analysis of foreign thinkers’ of the past thoughts on dignity)

The relevance of the paper is motivated by the importance of understanding the category of dignity as a category of pedagogical ethics. The author motivates the social relevance of solving a pedagogical plan of the issue of dignity by the fact that the value of dignity in current geopolitical and sociocultural conditions can become the basis of mutual understanding of peoples aspiring to preserve their cultural identity, to recognize the right to uphold traditional values for each of them. While developing a theoretical plan of the issue, the author proceeds from the idea that the basis for its solution should be an analysis of the ideas of thinkers and philosophers of the past that are of great importance to the present. The paper shows how the content of the dignity category, which is relevant for pedagogical ethics, is gradually being formed. Understanding of dignity by Plato is correlated with its understanding by Aristotle: for Plato, dignity is a virtue, which is manifested in the worthy behavior of a person, the quality of the soul (the dignity of the soul lies in wisdom); Aristotle connects dignity of a person with his/her deeds and actions, points to the importance of dignity in friendship based on equality, and not on superiority, on the inherent value of a person, and not on the choice of friends for benefit or pleasure. Summing up the analysis of the ancient thinkers ideas on dignity, the author draws special attention to the fact that it is the orientation to recognition of the dignity by each party of communication that is considered the basis of its adequacy. When analyzing ideas of T. Hobbes and I. Kant, the concept of price of a person becomes the key one. The author shows that T. Hobbes speaks of dignity as the superiority of some subjects over others (intellectual dignity, implying mental abilities, social value of a person, that is, the price given to him/her by the state) and emphasizes the social status of the phenomenon of dignity. I. Kant distinguishes between the concepts of price and dignity, assuming that dignity has neither value nor equivalent, it is higher than price and evaluation, that a person is respected for dignity as an internal moral value, and not for the origin and social status. The author of the paper insists that the value of dignity has the supra-situational importance in teacher-students interaction, it is based on recognition of the equality of all people in moral terms, regardless of their level of morality, social status and social roles performed, determines not only equal attitude of the teacher to all students, but also his/her attitude to him/herself and the attitude of students to him/her.

Orumo ir tikėjimo į Dievą svarba moterims priešinantis intymaus partnerio smurtui

Orumo ir tikėjimo į Dievą svarba moterims priešinantis intymaus partnerio smurtui

Dignity and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: How We Can Best End Shame and Humiliation

This chapter is premised on the belief that dignity is the core of the entire therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) enterprise, and do not think we can seriously write about or think about TJ without taking seriously the role of dignity in the legal process. One of the central principles of TJ is a commitment to dignity. TJ may also lend dignity to the voice of those who are subordinated. Boiled down to its most essential element, therapeutic jurisprudence adds the dignity and value of the individual human being to legal analysis in a formal way. This is accentuated in the context of shame and humiliation. Keeping in mind that the law always has the power to shame, and humiliate, it is crystalline-clear that humiliation in the law utterly contradicts the aims of TJ and undermines the role of dignity. These behaviors directly contravene the guiding principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, especially in the context of its relationship to the importance of dignity in the law. In this chapter, I explore the relationship between dignity and therapeutic jurisprudence, and conclude that, acting in concert, they are our best option for ending shame and humiliation.

La dignidad humana como principio biojurídico y como estándar moral de la relación médico-paciente

El artículo destaca la importancia de distinguir entre dos roles diversos que la noción de dignidad humana juega en bioética: uno, como principio de orden jurídico-político, y otro, como estándar moral del trato debido al paciente. Cuando la dignidad es entendida en el primer sentido, nos encontramos con un concepto muy general, que cumple un rol fundacional y de orientación de las normas relacionadas con las prácticas biomédicas. En cambio, cuando es utilizada en el segundo sentido, intenta captar la exigencia moral de tratar siempre al paciente como “persona”, es decir, con el mayor cuidado y respeto. Para clarificar el significado de la dignidad como principio, se apela a la distinción entre principios y normas elaborada en el campo de la filosofía jurídica. La dignidad como estándar moral de la relación médico-paciente se ilustra en base a una serie de estudios empíricos.

Educating student midwives around dignity and respect.

There is currently limited information available on how midwifery students learn to provide care that promotes dignity and respect. In recent years the importance of dignity in healthcare and treating people with respect has received considerable emphasis in both a national and international context. The aim of this discussion paper is to describe an educational workshop that enables learning to promote dignity and respect in maternity care. An interactive workshop, using different creative methods as triggers for learning will be described. Provision of learning opportunities for students around dignity and respect is important to ensure appropriate care is provided in practice. The use of creative methods to inspire has contributed to deep learning within participants. An evaluation of the workshop illustrated how learning impacted on participants practice. Data to support this is presented in this paper. The use of creative teaching approaches in a workshop setting appears to provide an effective learning opportunity around dignified and respectful care. These workshops have evoked a deep emotional response for some participants, and facilitators must be prepared for this outcome to ensure a safe space for learning.

The Dignity in Multiplicity: Human Value as a Foundational Concept in Relational Thought

This paper explores the foundational status of the concept of human dignity in relational thought. The author highlights the importance of dignity in everyday clinical work, as well as the role this notion has played in inspiring what has been called the “relational turn” in psychoanalysis. Utilizing concepts from ethical theory and current analytic ideas regarding the multiplicity of self-states, the author sketches a model of psychic experience in which dignity plays a defining role. This model emphasizes the ongoing dialectic between dignity-based processes (in which Self and Other are experienced as unconditionally valuable) and processes in which we experience Self and Other as only conditionally valuable, or in many cases of pathology, unconditionally bad. A dignity-based vision of analytic process is proposed, wherein analyst and patient are engaged in the co-construction of an intersubjective space that is progressively more consistent with their intrinsic worth as human beings. It is suggested that, by explicitly affirming human dignity as an overarching value of relational thought, we would be encouraging continuous revision of our theories in order to further reflect the worth of the human subject, a process that could lead to more humane theories of analytic work.

Patients' perception of dignity in an Italian general hospital: a cross-sectional analysis.

BackgroundDignity is related to a patient’s respect, privacy, information and autonomy. Maintaining dignity is defined as ethical goal of care. Although the importance of dignity has been widely recognized, there is limited research that investigates if dignity is really maintained in clinical practice and few studies have been conducted in acute hospital settings with adults across the age range. The aim of the study was to explore inpatients’ perception of dignity in an hospital setting.MethodsThis descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 10 medical and surgical wards of a General Hospital in Modena (Italy). We collected a purposive sample of 100 patients by selecting 10 participants from each ward who met following criteria: hospitalized for more than three days, at least 18 years old, not mentally ill, willing to participate and able to speak Italian. We developed a 15-item anonymous questionnaire divided into three sections: “physical privacy”, “information and autonomy”, “nurse-patients respectful interaction”.ResultsThe percentages of positive (preserved dignity perception) were more frequent than negative (not preserved dignity perception) and no answers with a statistically significantly difference among the three sections (Pearson chi2 = 150.41, p < 0.0001). The frequency of positive or negative answers was statistically significantly related to the preservation of dignity according to the following questions (p < 0.005, multivariate logistic regression): “privacy to use the bathroom” and “respectful interaction”, as protective factors and “maintaining of body privacy”, “involvement in the care process”, “correct communication” as risk factors.ConclusionsDignity was quite but not completely maintained according to the standards expected by patients. According to patients’ views, privacy of the body during medical procedures and respectful nurse-patient interactions were preserved more than information and verbal communication. Listening to patients’ views on the specific factors they consider useful to maintaining their dignity can help in this process. Recognizing and focusing on these factors will help professionals to establish practical measures for preserving and promoting patients' dignity and providing more dignified care. Dignity should be extensively and systematically pursued as other important clinical goals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0704-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Legal advice

Richard Griffith on the importance of dignity

The importance of dignity in childbirth

The importance of dignity in childbirth

Policing Ourselves: A Republican Theory of Citizenship, Dignity and Policing - A Comment on Fagan

Legal scholars tend to have a binary view of police intervention; they naturally focus on whether a police officer was legally justified in engaging in any particular interaction. This view misses what may be the most important feature in most citizens’ interaction with the police, in particular the experience of the Black, Brown and poor. Policing is not only a question of whether a police stop is conducted but how a police stop is conducted. Our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is both legally impoverished and practically limited because our Constitutional jurisprudence does not take note of how the police treat persons – whether one is subjected to racist language and purposeful humiliation – as part of the calculation of a reasonable search.Jeffrey Fagan’s contribution to this Fordham Urban Law Journal Symposium fills an important need by recognizing that how one is treated by the police is at least as important is if one is approached by the police. Fagan argues that recognizing the importance of dignity within our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence provides a legal response to commonplace acts of racist and humiliating policing. While Fagan is convincing in highlighting the need to import a commitment to reasonable dignity in police behavior, I argue in this comment that conceptions of human dignity are notoriously too broad and undefined to serve as a legal guide and additionally miss an important element in being wronged by the police. Rather, understanding that both the law and the police are especially tied to our place as citizens highlights the need for a republican view of the dignity of citizenship to guide our policing.

Bread and Roses: Women Workers and the Struggle for Dignity and Respect

When workers walked out of the Lawrence, Massachusetts mills on January 12, 1912, calling “short pay, all out,” their strike was later called the Bread and Roses strike. Though Congressional Committee investigated food budgets of the strikers and found that the 32 cents the owners had docked their pay (because of legislation reducing hours) was about two weeks of bread, the memory of the strike has been more iconic: “The strikers wanted not only decent pay, but a chance to enjoy the good things of life. They carried signs saying, ‘We want bread and roses too!' ” Thus, states one of the 252,000 entries that Google reports using the phrase “bread and roses strike.” Many sources repeat the inspiring observation. The workers, the legend goes, usually identifying the women, asserted their aspiration for what the poet James Oppenheim called “art and love and beauty” that their “drudging spirits” lacked. Some versions refer to the slogan on picket signs and some to banners. That this is probably legend and not something that actually happened tells us much about the importance of dignity and respect in working class struggles—and the role of women workers in them.

The Heart of CareThe Heart of Care

MUCH HAS been written, and continues to be written, about the importance of dignity, respect and compassion in care. Dignity is not an ‘add on’, but is core to care, irrespective of the setting in which that care is delivered. Experiencing ways of working that do not enable dignity, respect and compassion can leave a person believing they are vulnerable, uncared for and lacking in value as a unique person. As Amanda Waring states, ‘care from the heart is not a luxury but a necessity’.

Jan Ch Karlsson: Organizational Misbehaviour in the Workplace. Narratives of Dignity and Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Jan Ch Karlsson: Organizational Misbehaviour in the Workplace. Narratives of Dignity and Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012If you have any doubts about the importance of dignity and autonomy to employees at all levels of an organization, then this book surely is a must read for you. Should you lack good research-based examples of what happens when management tries to impose a suitable culture on the employees, forces employees to work in presumably more efficient ways, or implements control measures that are perceived as intrusive and unjust, then this book provides you with numerous references. In fact, this is a book very much suited for work life researchers, for general management, and within organization and management studies.The book is divided into three separate parts. First, the theme of organizational misbehavior is shortly introduced in relation to theories that address problems of organizing work processes or dignity and autonomy more indirectly, for example, socio-technical theory, the control-demand model, and Lysgaards study of the workers' collective. The second part of the book consists of a total of 66 short narratives on organizational misbehavior drawn from various research literature from the 1950s onward; approximately half of them stem from the years between 2000 and 2011. The third part of the book consists of two chapters. The first introduces what the author describes as the focal point of organizational misbehavior, the rationales behind the breaking of management rules, through the introduction of an empirical example/research study from the Norwegian Health Care Sector. The second chapter discusses numerous approaches relevant to organizational misbehavior and presents a model of possible subsets of organizational misbehavior in relation to the command hierarchy at the workplace.The main bulk of this book, the narratives, is perhaps also the most interesting one. There is no doubt that the author has done a great job selecting interesting, illuminating, and relevant examples of organizational misbehavior in various contexts. There is, however, a slight problem with regard to the lack of systematic analysis of the presented narratives. After reading 128 pages of narratives, you get surprised that Karlsson chooses to present another empirical study over a whole new chapter. It is as if he does not after all regard the 66 narratives as anything else than, well, just narratives. Another question also presents itself-why has not the narratives been placed directly within, or more clearly in relation to, the model in the concluding chapter? The book would also benefit from presenting an overview of the narratives-country of origin, year, type of business, size of business, and so on-it just is not enough to write one paragraph to sum up all of these characteristics.The narratives may be perceived as a summary of every possible way management can go wrong in their quest for more control and how the (more clever) employees manage to be productive anyway. They make you smile, they may shock you, but even more so they come across as essential insights for anyone interested in the organizing and development of organizations. Some of the narratives illustrate the classical struggle of middle management when they are made responsible for implementing top-down initiated restructuring processes, often put forward as cultural change projects, but with the hidden agenda of making the workers more productive. In some of these cases, middle management then overrules top management by joining forces with the employees. Management is not homogenous and managers do not always threaten the subordinates' dignity. On the contrary, managers may themselves be without the necessary dignity and influence in their work. In other words, organizational misbehavior-the breaking of management rules- can be found at every level of an organization and is not an exclusive worker strategy. …

The dual role of human dignity in bioethics

This paper argues that some of the misunderstandings surrounding the meaning and function of the concept of human dignity in bioethics arise from a lack of distinction between two different roles that this notion plays: one as an overarching policy principle, and the other as a moral standard of patient care. While the former is a very general concept which fulfils a foundational and a guiding role of the normative framework governing biomedical issues, the latter reflects a much more concrete and context-specific understanding of the patient as a "person". The importance of dignity as a policy principle will be described by appealing to the distinction between principles and rules as developed by some legal philosophers. The value of dignity as a standard of patient care will be illustrated with the help of concrete examples and by drawing on the taxonomies of dignity proposed by Jonathan Mann and other scholars. The overall scope of the article is to highlight this double and complementary role of human dignity in bioethics.

A “good death”: perspectives of Muslim patients and health care providers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Twelve “good death” principles have been identified that apply to Westerners. This study aimed to review the TFHCOP good death perception to determine its validity for Muslim patients and health care providers, and to identify and describe other components of the Muslim good death perspective.SUBJECTS AND METHODS:Participants included 284 Muslims of both genders with different nationalities and careers. We used a 12-question questionnaire based on the 12 principles of the TFHCOP good death definition, followed by face-to-face interviews. We used descriptive statistics to analyze questionnaire responses. However, for new themes, we used a grounded theory approach with a “constant comparisons” method.RESULT:On average, each participant agreed on eight principles of the questionnaire. Dignity, privacy, spiritual and emotional support, access to hospice care, ability to issue advance directives, and to have time to say goodbye were the top priorities. Participants identified three main domains. The first domain was related to faith and belief. The second domain included some principles related to self-esteem and person>s image to friends and family. The third domain was related to satisfaction about family security after the death of the patient. Professional role distinctions were more pronounced than were gender or nationality differences.CONCLUSION:Several aspects of «good death,» as perceived by Western communities, are not recognized as being important by many Muslim patients and health care providers. Furthermore, our study introduced three novel components of good death in Muslim society.