RCN - Dignity Campaign
The RCN's 'Dignity: at the heart of everything we do' campaign - launched on 25 June 2008 - aims to provide support and direction to the UK's nursing workforce, as they deliver care for patients and clients of any health status in every setting.
Put simply, the RCN believes that every member of the nursing workforce should prioritise dignity in care, placing it at the heart of all we do. Yet while dignity is clearly a vital component of care, the RCN is concerned that it is beginning to be lost.
When dignity is absent from care, people feel devalued, lacking control and comfort. They may also lack confidence, be unable to make decisions for themselves, and feel humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed.
Providing dignity in care centres on three integral aspects: respect, compassion and sensitivity. In practice, this means:
- Respecting patients' and clients' diversity and cultural needs; their privacy - including protecting it as much as possible in large, open-plan hospital wards; and the decisions they make
- Being compassionate when a patient or client and/or their relatives need emotional support, rather than just delivering technical nursing care
- Demonstrating sensitivity to patients' and clients' needs, ensuring their comfort.
Patients and clients can also experience dignity - or its absence - in what they wear, such as gowns, and in the physical environment where treatment takes place. For example:
- facilities such as toilets should be well maintained and cleaned regularly
- curtains between beds should close properly to offer some measure of privacy
- toilet doors should be closed when in use
- bays in wards should be single-sex
- gowns should be designed and made in a way that allows them to be fastened properly to avoid accidental exposure
- privacy should be provided for private conversations, intimate care and personal activities, such as going to the toilet.