The meaning and importance of dignified care: findings from a survey of health and social care professionals

BMC Geriatrics

David Oliver¹  Wendy Martin³  Andreé Le May⁵  Sally Richards²  Christina Victor³  Veronika Williams⁴  Deborah Cairns³ 

[1] City University School of Community and Health Sciences, Oxford, UK;Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK;School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University, Mary Seacole Building, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK;Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit, Oxford, UK;University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

关键词: Hands on care;    Care;    Ageing;    Older people;    Nursing;    Social care professionals;    Health care professionals;    Dignity;   

Others  :  857819
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2318-13-28

 received in 2012-11-15, accepted in 2013-03-15,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

There are well established national and local policies championing the need to provide dignity in care for older people. We have evidence as to what older people and their relatives understand by the term ‘dignified care’ but less insight into the perspectives of staff regarding their understanding of this key policy objective.

Methods

A survey of health and social care professionals across four NHS Trusts in England to investigate how dignified care for older people is understood and delivered. We received 192 questionnaires of the 650 distributed.

Results

Health and social care professionals described the meaning of dignified care in terms of their relationships with patients: ‘respect’ (47%), ‘being treated as an individual’ (40%), ‘being involved in decision making’ (26%) and ‘privacy’ (24%). ‘Being treated as an individual’ and ‘maintaining privacy’ were ranked as the most important components of dignified care. Physical caring tasks such as ‘helping with washing, dressing and feeding’ were rarely described as being part of dignified care and attributed much less importance than the relational components.

Conclusion

Dignity in care is a concept with multiple meanings. Older people and their relatives focus upon the importance of providing physical care when describing what this means to them. Our participants focussed upon the relational aspects of care delivery rather than care itself. Proactive measures are therefore required to ensure that the physical aspects of care are met for all older people receiving care in NHS trusts.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Cairns et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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