Patient Centred Care

The guiding principles of Catholic Social Teaching have the overarching, dominating theme of human dignity (Condit, 2016, p. 371). The focus is, that human beings were formed in God’s image and in return, humanities purpose is to follow in God’s footsteps and portray the same love and grace (Coleman, 2008) (Condit, 2016, p. 371). Consequently, this affects how human beings interact with each other, requiring commitment, to look after, encourage, maintain and promote each other (Coleman, 2008) (Herbert, 2016, p. 7). One way to apply, this Catholic Social Teaching of human dignity, is to understand the nurse’s relationship with the patient. Nurses need to approach the patient with respect and maintain the person’s privacy, acknowledging that they are a fellow human being, with their own personal characteristics and beliefs (Condit, 2016, p. 371) (Walsh & Kowanko, 2002, p. 143-144, 149).

Dignity must be at the centre of everything we do if we are to achieve high quality person centred care and support, dignity focuses on the value of every person as an individual it means respecting others views, choices and decisions, not making assumptions about how people want to be treated and working with care and compassion. The principles focus on the key values,attitudes,skills and knowledge required to provide the best care possible, the principles give the workforce and those employ and train them clear guidance and practical tools to understanding how to place dignity at the

During my placement during at an aged care facility, it was an important process to ensure that nursing interventions were carried out to ensure a respectful behaviour of a resident’s dignity, culture, values beliefs and

* Dignity - the patient (and the person treating the patient) have the right to be treated with dignity.

Personal care procedures have the potential to threaten a patient’s dignity (Baillie, 2009). The RCN (2008) has identified activities which can compromise dignity, a few of these are: personal care, elimination, support with eating and drinking, and moving and handling all have the potential to degrade or devalue a person. Careful planning, sensitive interactions or communication, respecting patient autonomy, preferences and choices and providing comfort can help maintain dignity in these situations (Baillie et al., 2009).

This is a campaign to stop lack of respect show to service users and to ensure that their dignity is maintained through good and positive service. It encourages challenging of poor service or lack of respect.

This essay will consider ethics in nursing, discuss values and morals and how dignity and respect in patient care is influenced; considering the importance of reflection and the implications it has on effective practice from the perspective of a student nurse. The scenario “Call Me Joe” provided by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2010a) highlights concerning issues and bad practice that are happening in modern day nursing practice, and using the Driscoll and Teh (2001) reflective model: What, Now What and So What, to consider the care that Joe is receiving; considering how the nursing practice affects him directly and the implications of the nature of knowledge in nursing practice. Part of the way in which nursing practice is

Using patient centred care during this process will ensure that the care and treatment is specific to the patients’ needs and choices, (NICE, 2013) maintaining and ensuring dignity at all times. This focuses on three important features – respect, compassion and sensitivity, (Royal College of Nursing (RCN), 2014) aiding the therapeutic relationship, (Cobb et al, 2012) which in turn will provide better care for the patient as they begin to

It is important that the patient is aware not only of their rights, but of their individual responsibilities.

The RCN’s (2008) definition of dignity is seen to be the ‘foundation of excellence in nursing practice’. The definition is concerned with how nurses care about individuals by how they support patient autonomy and choice (Barker 2000).

This essay aims to describe briefly what is meant by patient-centred care. It will also focus and expand on two key aspects of patient dignity - making choices and confidentiality. Patient-centred care (PCC) is an extensively used model in the current healthcare system (Pelzang 2010:12). PCC is interpreted as looking at the whole person and considering their individual values and needs in relation to their healthcare. By implementing a PCC approach it ensures that the person is at the very centre of any plans that are made and has a dynamic role in the decision making process (Pelzang 2010:12).

Promoting the patient’s autonomy increasing the patients dignity because it reminds both the healthcare professional and the patients, that they are still capable of many things, and do not need to be treated as a toddler or as less than human. Also included in the concept of autonomy for patients

In chapter 3, Dignity, Vulnerability, and the Personhood of the Patient by Sulmasy, the author presents a brief overview to the concepts of dignity and vulnerability, and at the end ties it together by relating it to how it affects the medical staff who care for patients at their most vulnerable time.

According to Jean Watson, in order to render a good quality of care there should be a new meaning and there should be dignity to the work and to both nurses and the patient (McEwen,

According to the National League for Nursing the core values of a nurse are caring, excellence, diversity, and integrity (National League for Nursing, 2014). I believe it is important to be an advocate for our patients. Sometimes the patients are not able to speak for themselves and sometimes there are not family members present to speak up for the patient. Sometimes the nurse has to be there to advocate for the patient to make sure he or she is receiving the care that he or she needs. According to the author Beth Perry a nurse is able to keep the patients dignity by “advocat[ing] for patients’ wishes when the patients were not able to advocate for themselves” (Perry, 2005, p. 44). This is when the patient needs a nurse the most; this speaks