Perceptions and understandings of dignity. Kap. 2

Abstract

‘Dignity’ is a term used widely, often interchangeably, with the term ‘respect’. It is challenging to illustrate these concepts as they relate to health and social care. Through a retrospective analysis of our research, we explore the meaning and rele-vance of dignity in care through the participants’ narratives. Although human dignity is complex to define and operationalise in practice, it is quite clear when it is lacking. Par-ticipants referred to key attributes of holistic care and treating patients as people, through establishing and maintaining meaningful interpersonal relationships, and the implications when human dignity is not maintained.