A dignified approach to improving the patient experience : promoting privacy, dignity and respect through collaborative training

Chadwick, AL

Abstract

Globally there is a plethora of literature surrounding patients’ privacy, dignity and respect, consequently
highlighting the need for healthcare professionals to ensure such basic human rights are upheld when
delivering care. For qualified practitioners this is further emphasised through the professional bodies and
their varying codes of practice. To ensure privacy, dignity and respect move from rhetoric to reality in
professional practice many pre-registration programmes promote service user involvement. Evidence
suggests that involving service users in the delivery of educational programmes by directly telling their
own stories enhances patient centred care. However given a number of recent patient surveys and/or
audits reporting the lack of privacy, dignity and respect in health and social care settings there seems to
be a growing need to reaffirm practitioners’ knowledge, skills and values once qualified and practising in
healthcare organisations. This paper reports on a project in a UK NHS Mental health Trust where service
users, in collaboration with Trust staff, planned and delivered a series of privacy and dignity workshops
to healthcare practitioners with the aim of improving the patient experience. Although the project took
place within a Mental Health Trust the issues of privacy, dignity and respect apply to all healthcare
sectors.

Citation

Chadwick, A. (2012). A dignified approach to improving the patient experience : promoting privacy, dignity and respect through collaborative training. Nurse Education in Practice, 12(4), 187-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2011.12.006

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: May 31, 2012
• Journal: Nurse Education in Practice
• Print ISSN: 1471-5953
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 187-191
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2011.12.006
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2011.12.006