A life in dignity. A clinical study maintaining dignity of patients in nursing homes

Project summary

Elderly people will represent a major challenge within health care services in the future. Mass media tells about humiliating conditions for people living in nursing homes. This is also verified through research. A lot of personnel working in nursing homes have not appropriate education to work there. There is therefore a need to do research in nursing homes where health care personnel are involved as co-researchers.

Attending to the patient’s need for dignity is regarded as one of the primary objectives of health science. A literature review reveals that knowledge exists about what human dignity is. There also exists knowledge about patients when their dignity is violated. Some knowledge exists on how patients and relatives experience that their dignity is promoted in nursing homes, but still we lack knowledge about their understandings when they do not maintain dignity. Additionally, the literature says little about how health personnel, leaders and health institutions focus on dignity in their treatment and care services. Research neither reveals what they think are reasons when patients do not maintain dignity or how health services might be developed that concerns patients’ dignity in nursing home care. This is important to strengthen the patients’ opportunities to interact with health care personnel. Lastly, literature does not describe what patients and relatives do themselves to maintain dignity. Due to the literature review we therefore conclude that this study is necessary and important in promoting elderly patients’ dignity.

Main objectives: To develop knowledge on how to promote dignity in elderly contexts. To develop health services for the elderly patient group in order to strengthen their opportunities to interact with health care personnel and influence the desired outcome understood as a dignified life.

Method: The overall design is clinical application research and cooperative inquiry. In both cooperative inquiry and clinical application research the informants are looked upon as co-researchers. Data collection methods will be interviews, conversations, focus group interviews and observation.