THE EFFECT OF NURSING CARE ON HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE CRITICALLY ILL ADULT.
Contributors: University of Virginia.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 151
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: In our modern health care delivery system, the technical aspects of curing often affect human dignity. Due to lack of research on this topic, nurses may not know how their nursing care affects the patient's human dignity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe how nursing care affects the dignity of critically ill adult patients. To understand the meaning of dignity in the lives of critically ill adults required a methodology that takes into account the sociocultural context affecting the patient's human responses. This research study used a qualitative approach adapted from the works of Spradley (1979), Leininger (1985), and Lincoln & Guba (1985). Nine critically ill cardiovascular bypass surgery patients who had spent at least 24 hours in an intensive care unit were interviewed post-operatively. In the interviews the informants described how they perceived human dignity and how their dignity was affected by specific nursing care. Informants' responses during the interview were coded and analyzed for themes and patterns related to nursing care. The attributes of dignity that emerged were privacy, control, independence, competence and caring. Presence was concluded to be the key intervention recognized by the informants. The cognitive, affective and physical domains of nursing presence were discussed as they related to the attributes of dignity.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-09, Section: B, page: 3924.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 1989.

School code: 0246.