An early casualty of a medical crisis seems to be the patient’s dignity. Many procedures require disrobing. For those suffering incapacity, the most basic bodily functions may require a stranger’s assistance. These circumstances rob a patient of dignity. When a health care professional acts to return dignity to the patient, she offers a powerful medicine.
I worked in home health care, a field with great potential to offer increased dignity to patients. One of the greatest joys of my job came from my ability to provide quality care within the patient’s home, allowing them to remain close to loved ones and familiar surroundings – another form of dignity.
Dignity begins with remembering that the patient is a person, not just a diagnosis. That person has a name. Address the patient by name, with respect. I learned that if I addressed my patient as “Mrs. Smith,” she would usually ask me to call her by her first name – her choice, her dignity. If I called her “Alice” on first meeting, I would often get a huffy “I prefer ‘Mrs. Smith’” in response.
Dignity increases with the gift of time. In a facility, staffers often experience patient loads that limit the amount of time available for a given patient. In the home care environment, I could allow my patient to shave himself with an electric razor if he chose to, rather than rushing through doing it for him. Maybe it took a little longer than if I had done it, but those few minutes gave him a small amount of independence, a measure of dignity.
Personal hygiene offers perhaps the greatest opportunity for a professional to give the patient dignity. One of my patients expressed it as “You wash as high as possible and as low as possible. I’ll wash possible.” Be respectful of the patient’s nakedness.
Patients lose a great deal of control during a severe illness or injury. By allowing my patient to have any degree of control I could offer, I helped to restore her dignity. The choices may have been limited by protocols to asking what color gown she wanted to wear after her bath or whether she wanted to eat a bite of vegetable before starch, but each choice offered a little control over her life.
A caregiver at any level can find ways to return some of the patient’s dignity. The benefits far outweigh the effort.