Experiences of dignity: Age at onset of serious illness matters
BackgroundPreserving persons’ dignity is integral to nursing. More research is needed to explore how a diversity of patients, particularly those that experience illness from a young age, experience dignity.AimDescribe the characteristics of dignity for persons living with serious illness.Research de...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2023
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| In: |
Nursing ethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 30, Issue: 7/8, Pages: 1038-1050 |
| Further subjects: | B
Young Adult
B Narrative B serious illness B care of the older person B Development B dignity in care |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | BackgroundPreserving persons’ dignity is integral to nursing. More research is needed to explore how a diversity of patients, particularly those that experience illness from a young age, experience dignity.AimDescribe the characteristics of dignity for persons living with serious illness.Research designUsing a secondary data set of twenty audio-recorded interviews, a thematic content analysis was conducted to identify characteristics of dignity. The research team employed van Gennip et al.’s, 2013 “Model of Dignity in Illness” (1) to create a codebook, which the authors utilized to independently code twenty narrative interview transcripts.Participants and research contextTwenty persons living with serious illness of heart failure and/or dialysis-dependent renal failure who were admitted in an acute care hospital.Ethical considerationsThis study was approved on August 26, 2019, by the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board (COMIRB) IRB Protocol #19-1874.FindingsEarly-onset participants expressed markedly different dignity concerns than late-onset participants. In the individual domain, early-onset participants felt that their illness was “normal”; they did not experience the “healthy person to patient” transition described by older onset participants. In the relational domain, early-onset participants expressed that their relationships had already integrated their illness while late-onset participants felt that their illness harmed many of their relationships. In the societal domain, early-onset participants described dignity concerns related to how society impacted their ability to financially support themselves during their illness.DiscussionDifferences in the dignity experience of early-onset and late-onset participants are informed by Erikson’s “Model of Development” and by Aranda and Jones feminist critique of dignity in healthcare.ConclusionsPersons with early-onset illness experience dignity differently. Awareness of the importance of work and financial independence to the experience of dignity for seriously ill patients may enhance persons’ dignity experience. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-0989 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/09697330231151353 |