The Importance Of Dignity In Nursing

Dignity and compassion are two different words cut from the same cloth. The definition of dignity from Merriam-Webster is “the quality of being worthy of honor or respect” and compassion “sympathetic consciousness of others ' distress together with a desire to alleviate it” (Merriam-Webster). These two words may not seem like a common duo, but when applied to nursing they rarely go unseen. For this assignment I interviewed my neighbor Joann, she is 85 and frequents the hospital with her husband who has dementia. I thought it would be interesting to see what a family member experiences when they are not the one receiving care. I was told nothing but great things about the nursing care received while in the hospital, and both patient and family …show more content…
It is hard to portray the emotion that was given off from Joann while she was talking about her husbands care through words on paper, but as she was talking about it she was holding back tears. This really struck home for me, it showed me how much what we do as nurses can impact not only our patients, but their families as well. In the article Perspectives on Nursing and Critically Ill Older Adults by Cynthia S. Jacelon and Elizabeth A. Henneman, dignity is described as this “… behavior that demonstrates respect for self and others…” (Jacelon and Henneman, 2015). This quote demonstrates that by the definition set by Jacelon and Henneman, care was provided with dignity and …show more content…
I want to make patients happy, I want them to maintain their dignity and I want to provide care with as much compassion as I can give. The nurse-patient relationship is one that can be made over a short period of time, you as a nurse are doing things that require a good amount of trust. These patients trust that I will be competent enough to do what will benefit them and follows their wishes. Beth Israel Deaconess published an article about dignity in their hospital, this quote from the article gives a definition of dignity that I believe is quite fitting for what I value “Dignity: The recognition that each person has intrinsic, unconditional value” (BIDMC, 2015). While working in the clinical setting I make it my goal to treat each person as an individual, with specific needs and wants. I set out with the intention of giving each patient the maximum amount of dignity they can retain and the maximum amount of compassion I can deal out. I chose nursing because it is something that I am passionate about, and will continue to be