Concerns about workplace dignity (WPD) have long driven researchers and practitioners to explore ways of measuring it. It is essential for organizations to understand, how employees perceive the WPD ...for positive employee outcomes. The paper reviews literature, traces the development of WPD and finds the gap. The purpose of this paper is to evolve and operationalize the construct of 'WPD,' and develop and standardize a measure for it which will pave the way for future studies to empirically test the role of WPD on organizational outcomes such as employee engagement, retention and the like. This is perhaps the maiden attempt for conceptualization and operationalization of the construct of WPD, thus it contributes to the extant knowledge and has implications for academics and practitioners.
To investigate the perception of dignity among patients hospitalized in a psychiatric setting using the Patient Dignity Inventory (PDI), which had been first validated in oncologic field among ...terminally ill patients.
After having modified two items, we administered the Italian version of PDI to all patients hospitalized in a public psychiatric ward (Service of Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment of a northern Italian town), who provided their consent and completed it at discharge, from October 21, 2015 to May 31, 2016. We excluded minors and patients with moderate/severe dementia, with poor knowledge of Italian language, who completed PDI in previous hospitalizations and/or were hospitalized for <72 hours. We collected the demographic and clinical variables of our sample (n=135). We statistically analyzed PDI scores, performing Cronbach's alpha coefficient and principal factor analysis, followed by orthogonal and oblique rotation. We concomitantly administered to our sample other scales (Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Global Assessment of Functioning and Health of the Nation Outcome Scales) to analyze the PDI concurrent validity.
With a response rate of 93%, we obtained a mean PDI score of 48.27 (±19.59 SD) with excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient =0.93). The factorial analysis showed the following three factors with eigenvalue >1 (Kaiser's criterion), which explained >80% of total variance with good internal consistency: 1) "Loss of self-identity and social role", 2) "Anxiety and uncertainty for future" and 3) "Loss of personal autonomy". The PDI and the three-factor scores were statistically significantly positively correlated with the Hamilton Scales for Depression and Anxiety but not with other scale scores.
Our preliminary research suggests that PDI can be a reliable tool to assess patients' dignity perception in a psychiatric setting, until now little investigated, helping professionals to improve quality of care and patients to accept treatments.
Objective
Young adult patients with cancer are a growing concern. By means of network analysis, this study aimed to explore the interplay between dignity‐related distress and quality of life (QoL) in ...young adult patients with cancer when they undergo active treatments.
Methods
In this cross‐sectional study, 309 young adults aged 18–39 and diagnosed with malignant tumors were recruited from an oncology center in China between September 2020 and August 2021. Participants completed the Patient Dignity Inventory and SF‐36 questionnaires. Network analysis was applied to examine the network structure.
Results
Overall, the core facets of dignity‐related distress were negatively related to QoL and its corresponding domains, either directly or indirectly. Developmental distress played a central role among estimated networks and strongly interplayed with most QoL domains, especially the mental domains. Symptom distress was the only facet consistently interplayed with the physical domains of QoL (i.e., physical function and bodily pain). The social aspects were also revealed in the association between limited social support and vitality.
Conclusions
Early attention must be paid to guarantee the need of preserving dignity and enhancing QoL for young adult patients.
The discussion around dignity in nursing philosophy has been underway for many years. The literature still lacks philosophical arguments that would justify the thesis that all people have dignity. ...Scholars who defend dignity as an intrinsic value most often refer to Kant. However, Kant does not seem to be the most suitable candidate to defend the thesis that all human beings possess dignity. In this paper, I attempt to show that Aristotle's and Aquinas's views can help justify this thesis. To this end, I distinguish between actual dignity, potential dignity, and existential dignity. I state that all human beings have existential dignity or potential dignity.
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have the potential to affirm the dignity of participants through caring interactions, which support good relationships. A key ethical principle to guide the ...cultivation of good relationships in an RPP is a quality of relating that we call dignity-affirming care. We define dignity-affirming care as speech, actions, and dispositions that demonstrate concern for another and their expressed needs and goals in a manner that affirms their essential worth or value. We provide evidence that RPPs can embody the principle of dignity-affirming care while also noting some ways partners experienced ways of relating that did not reflect this kind of care. Further, we describe four underlying mechanisms that support care: the intensity of and concentration of relationships, a willingness to recognize social identities, and the ability to take on new roles.
Organisational restructuring involving cost-cutting, downsizing, and the acquisition and divestment of different functions is an increasingly normalised aspect of employment in both the private and ...public sectors. This article takes up the question of the effects of restructuring on workers through a study based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews of long-term workers in Finland’s state-owned postal service, using the concept of dignity as an analytical lens. The article distinguishes between everyday, organisational, and social dignity, using this distinction to capture how workers strove to sustain dignity in a process of organisational restructuring that generated dignity threats related to occupational devaluation. The study shows how dignity in postal work has been dependent on a particular historical configuration of public service work involving the employer organisation, employment relations, and occupational values. Cost-driven restructuring has destabilised this configuration, producing a stark separation between dignity in everyday work and the organisational indignities of restructuring in postal workers’ experiences. Feeling unable to affect organisational changes in their work, postal workers have been left to sustain dignity through everyday relationality, and by drawing intra-organisational boundaries to temporary workers and upper managers based on an occupational hierarchy of commitment and competence. The study highlights the significance of organisational support for dignity at work, particularly in relation to the dignity threats generated by prolonged processes of restructuring.
Dignity is a universal principle that requires us to treat every person as having worth beyond who a particular person is or what they do. Dignity is a complex and sometimes contested idea, that at ...times can be compromised in health care and allegedly also within the practice of outdoor therapy. Outdoor therapies comprise a range of therapeutic approaches including nature-based therapy, adventure therapy, animal-assisted therapy, forest therapy, wilderness therapy, surf therapy, and more. Within the literature of outdoor therapies there has been limited research on ethics related to common understandings of care concepts such as relational dignity and human rights. The aim of this paper is therefore to unravel briefly whether dignity in general, and relational qualities of dignified care more particularly, might be a useful concept to apply in order to support an ethical practice in outdoor therapies.
Background
Previous research has proposed that persons in need of palliative care often have a loss of functions and roles that affects social and existential self‐image. Moreover, these individuals ...also commonly suffer from complex multisymptoms. This, together with the situation of facing an impending death, can lead to a loss of dignity. Therefore, supporting these persons’ dignity is a crucial challenge for professional nurses. The ‘Dignity Care Intervention’ addresses the multidimensionality of dignity by identifying patients’ dignity‐related concerns and suggests care actions to address them. At the present, the Dignity Care Intervention is adapted for implementation in Swedish care settings. Because expressions of dignity are influenced by culture, and an overview of care actions in a Swedish context is lacking, this integrative review aimed to find suggestions from Swedish research literature on what kind of care actions can preserve dignity.
Methods
An integrative literature review was conducted using the databases SwePub and SweMed+. Articles published from 2006 to 2015 and theses published from 2000 to 2015 were searched for using the terms ‘dignity’ and ‘palliative care’. Result sections of articles and theses were reviewed for dignity‐conserving care actions synthesised by thematic analysis and categorised under themes and subthemes in Chochinov's model of dignity.
Results
Fifteen articles and 18 theses were included together providing suggestions of care actions in all themes and subthemes in the dignity model. Suggested care actions included listening, communication, information, symptom control, facilitating daily living and including patients in decision‐making. Additionally, nurses’ perceptiveness towards the patients was a core approach.
Conclusion
The review offers culturally relevant suggestions on how to address specific dignity‐related concerns. The adapted Dignity Care Intervention will be a way for Swedish nurses to provide person‐centred palliative care that will conserve patients’ dignity.
Objectives
The review aims to identify available evidence related to the effects of dignity therapy on dignity, psychological well‐being, and quality of life (QoL) among patients with cancer under ...palliative care.
Methods
Thirteen electronic databases were searched for published articles in English or Chinese from inception to May 2018. Methodological rigour was assessed through the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for randomised controlled trials and quasi‐experimental studies. Sufficient data from four trials were statistically pooled with Review Manager; otherwise, a narrative summary was used.
Results
Ten articles describing eight studies met the selection criteria and were included in the review. None of the studies met all JBI checklist criteria. Meta‐analysis results revealed that dignity therapy significantly improved dignity‐related distress in existential distress domain (mean differences MD: −0.26, 95% CI, −0.50 to −0.02, .03) and social support domain (MD: −0.23, 95% CI, −0.39 to −0.07, .004), but nonsignificant improved depression and anxiety. Narrative summaries indicated that dignity therapy exerted positive effects on patients' dignity, psychological well‐being, and QoL.
Conclusions
Dignity therapy is a promising approach to improve psychological well‐being among patients with cancer under palliative care. However, the effects of dignity therapy on dignity and QoL are inconsistent. Further extensive studies should measure the impact of dignity therapy through qualitative and quantitative approaches to establish outcomes in psychological well‐being. Studies with sensitivity to the cultural context within which dignity therapy applied should be conducted to explore its effects on patients with cancer at the early stages of illness trajectory.
Clarifying Human Dignity in Forensic Practice Griffith, Ezra E H; Griffith, Véronique A S
The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law,
2024-Mar-11, Letnik:
52, Številka:
1
Journal Article
The notion of human dignity remains a relatively complex concept that has roots in classical Greek and Roman antiquity and links to religious teachings and Kantian philosophical notions. From the ...Latin
, human dignity means worth and implies excellence and distinction. Human dignity, also found in 20
century constitutions and international declarations, has been considered in bioethics, general medicine, and psychiatry. The application of dignity to forensic psychiatry practice has received less attention. Through a review of texts in medicine and related fields, such as philosophy and anthropology, we aim to clarify the concept of human dignity and its application in forensic psychiatry practice. We first outline the historical origins of the term. We then consider several varieties of human dignity applied in medical ethics and psychiatry. We review individuals' lived experiences of indignity and dignity's place in forensic practice in different loci. We present recent scholarship related to human dignity and highlight the importance of dignity in forensic practice. Focusing on dignity in evaluator-evaluee and doctor-patient relationships should improve forensic work. Training in dignity-imbued forensic practice should remind us of the human dimensions of those we serve in the forensic arena.
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