The Importance of Dignity and Respect in Care  

What is Dignity in Care?

Dignity in care means everyone is treated with respect and honour. It is recognising and valuing every single person as a unique individual. This involves respecting and valuing individuals, supporting their independence, and showing compassion towards them.

Treating people as individuals with dignity and respect they deserve is an important aspect in healthcare. Dignity and respect can make a lot of difference when receiving care, as it enables the client or patient to feel valued and respected for what they are.

Why is dignity in Health and Social care so important?

Dignity is a fundamental human right that ensures that individuals are treated ethically and with respect. Maintaining patient dignity has been a long-standing principle in health and social care, individuals feel particularly vulnerable when unwell, sick, elderly and in need to receive care.  

According to the Health and Social Care Act 2008, Regulation 10, healthcare providers are required to: ‘make sure that they provide care and treatment in a way that ensures people’s dignity and treats them with respect at all times. This includes making sure that people have privacy when they need and want it, treating them as equals and providing any support they might need to be autonomous, independent and involved in their local community.’

Key reasons why Dignity and Respect are so important in health and social care:

• Ethically it is the right thing to do: Every patient/client has the right to maintain their dignity and it is the moral responsibility of the healthcare workers caring for them to ensure that this right is being respected.
• Patient health and wellbeing: If we feel like our dignity is being taken away from us it can cause us to quickly lose confidence and motivation and harm our mental well-being. Protecting patients’ mental wellbeing is very important to their overall health and happiness. Better mental wellbeing can help patients/clients to recover quicker from illness or injury.
• Build better relationships: When you provide care that protects a patient’s dignity it can help to foster trust and mutual respect. Building positive relationships between patient/client and care staff can improve the level of care provided.
• Fairness and equality: Every patient’s/client’s dignity should be protected to ensure that a fair and equal healthcare service is being provided, no matter what their age, race, religion, sickness, or economic status may be.

How to Treat Individual with Dignity and Respect?

• Treated with care and compassion:

   Choice and control: Having individual views listened to and taken into consideration. Always give individuals receiving care a choice and options for everything you do, such as what they want to wear, what they want to eat or what they want to watch on TV.

   Communication: Involve clients/patients in decisions relating to their care. Talking to them as equals in respectful manner and listening to them.

• Privacy and Dignity Respected: Ensuring that you offer enough privacy and clients/patients do not feel vulnerable, for example, during personal care or hygiene
• Respect personal space and possessions:  The respect for the clients/patient and their surroundings, seek permission if you want to do something and check to ensure whether the client/patient is comfortable with what you are doing.
• Respect their cultural and religious preferences: Listen to clients/patients when they talk about their beliefs in a non-judgemental manner.

International Nurses Day

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 12th, held on Florence Nightingale’s birthday.  Florence Nightingale, was the founder of modern nursing, in recognition to her lasting impact on the profession.