Dignity in the care of patients and clients of all ages, whether in hospital or community settings, is an area of increasing national and international importance and concern. However, a comprehensive, accessible resource for nurses and midwives on the theory and practice of dignity in care has until now been lacking. Dignity in Healthcare provides a practical approach, underpinned by up-to-date theory, to this crucial issue for those providing care to people in all stages of life, including those with mental illnesses or learning disabilities. Care in areas such as maternity, community, palliative and acute care and others is explored in depth. Approaches to education and practice development for promoting dignity in care are also outlined clearly and accessibly, with each chapter combining an evidence-based theoretical underpinning with practical application through scenarios. Pre-registration nursing and midwifery students and their teachers will find this book essential reading, but it will also be of interest to practising nurses, midwives and other health professionals seeking clear insights into the principle of care that is central to all healthcare professions.

The Healthcare Commission is the independent watchdog for England. Its function is to assess and report on the quality and safety of services provide by the NHS and independent sector. This is the fifth and final annual 'State of Healthcare Report', as the Commission is to be replaced by the Care Quality Commission on 1 April 2009. The report is mainly about the findings for the financial year 2007-08, but it also reflects on the progress that has been made in healthcare over the past five years. The report presents six pictures of the state of healthcare: for mothers; for children and young people; for people with mental health needs; for people with a learning disability; for people needing urgent and hospital care; and of the support offered to enhance people's health and wellbeing in the community. The Commission highlights improvements, with better use and management of resources in the NHS, falling death rates from cancer and heart disease, progress in public health matters such as smoking, a greater attention to safety. Concerns remain, however: a variable picture of quality in maternity services, mental health services and urgent care; commissioning of healthcare; meeting the needs of the more vulnerable in society; children's services; care for older people. Further improvement is needed to ensure that patients really are at the centre of care, are able to make meaningful choices, be fully involved in decisions and have the information they need.

This book offers a group of essays published in memory of David Thomasma, one of the leading humanists in the field of bioethics during the twentieth century. The authors represent many different countries and disciplines throughout the globe. The volume deals with the pressing issue of how to ground a universal bioethics in the context of the conflicted world of combative cultures and perspectives.

Healthcare Professionalism: Improving Practice through Reflections on Workplace Dilemmas provides the tools and resources to help raise professional standards within the healthcare system. Taking an evidence and case-based approach to understanding professional dilemmas in healthcare, this book examines principles such as applying professional and ethical guidance in practice, as well as raising concerns and making decisions when faced with complex issues that often have no absolute right answer. Key features include: Real-life dilemmas as narrated by hundreds of healthcare students globally A wide range of professionalism and inter-professionalism related topics Information based on the latest international evidence Using personal incident narratives to illustrate these dilemmas, as well as regulatory body professionalism standards, Healthcare Professionalism is an invaluable resource for students, healthcare professionals and educators as they explore their own professional codes of behaviour.

This book is specifically aimed at healthcare assistants, and is a comprehensive text covering all aspects of care of the patient. It is written by healthcare assistants and cover the a wide range of topics: * Safety issues * Basic patient and residential care * Special care * Mental health * Learning disabilities * Paediatrics * Women and maternity * Men's care * Caring for carers * Home health care * Lifting and moving patients * Death and dying.

How dignity violation and dignity promotion affect individual and collective health

We are now entering the third decade of the 21st Century, and, especially in the last years, the achievements made by researchers across the world have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of Healthcare Profession Educations. Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in science to be at the forefront of knowledge in different fields of research. This editorial initiative of particular relevance, led by Dr. Jacqueline Bloomfield and Lynn Monrouxe, Specialty Chief Editors of the Healthcare Professions Education section, focuses on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of Healthcare Professions Education. The Research Topic solicits brief, forward-looking contributions from scholars that describe the state of the art, outlining, recent developments and major accomplishments that have been achieved and that need to occur to move the field forward. Authors are encouraged to identify the greatest challenges in the sub-disciplines, and how to address those challenges.

Dignity is fundamental to every single person’s life and history; and every interaction with another human being can potentially influence a person’s sense of identity and self-esteem. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of ‘dignity in care’. When healthcare organisations and individuals prioritise dignity, service users, carers and staff are treated with respect, compassion and understanding, and safe, good-quality healthcare services are delivered. In contrast, when dignity and respect are neglected or violated, people experience poor-quality care and may even suffer neglect and abuse. For all these reasons, it is clearly vital that all healthcare workers have a thorough understanding of dignity and how to place it at the centre of all their activities. In this helpful and thought-provoking book, the contributors offer an overview of current research on dignity-preserving care, highlighting practical and ethical considerations in various healthcare settings. Section I introduces some key dignity theories, demonstrating how the use of narrative can offer insight and practical solutions for the delivery of high-quality care. Section II introduces actual stories from diverse settings and perspectives, enabling the reader to engage with core elements of dignity while highlighting how dignity can be preserved – even in very challenging practice situations. Critical thinking activities are also provided to encourage deep reflection and learning. This book will support students of nursing and allied healthcare professions, as well as healthcare professionals working in diverse practice settings, to reflect upon and enhance the quality of their care. Contents include: • Foreword: old and new philosophical angles on dignity in care • Preface: the necessity of dignity in healthcare • Understanding dignity: a complex concept at the heart of healthcare • Dignity and narrative: moral intuitions and contested claims • Dignity in dementia care • Dignity, protected by caring in care • Storytelling as a dignity-preserving practice in palliative care • Reintegrating spirituality and dignity in nursing and healthcare: a relational model of practice • The service provider and care perspective • Let us not forget the dignity of the professional caregiver: the necessity of dignity preservation within the therapeutic context • Dignity in suffering: a theological perspective • Learning dignity by involvement • Dignity in cancer care: a discussion based on three narratives written by nurses • A story of facilitators’ experiences of the Excellence in Practice Accreditation Scheme and its influence on quality, dignity and respect • Afterword: what gets in the way of dignity, and why you must not let it

Health rights are a common but controversial legal phenomenon. Every country is signatory to a treaty that incorporates health rights, yet existing health rights do not fit easily into the traditional "claim right" model, and questions remain over how to theoretically incorporate health rights into domestic systems. The Pluralist Right to Health Care addresses this incongruity between theory and practice with an account of the right to health care that is both philosophically and practically sound. Utilizing a pluralist framework, Michael Da Silva argues that the right to health care is best understood as a set of claims to related ends: the goods necessary for a dignified existence, procedural fairness in determining what other goods to provide and in the provision of goods, and a functioning health care system. Through philosophical reasoning, analysis of relevant international human rights law, and a close study of the Canadian case, The Pluralist Right to Health Care provides crucial insight into the potential of law and policy to improve health care systems in Canada and beyond.

Drawn from a two-day symposium at Santa Clara University, Conscience and Catholic Health Care provides a timely and up-to-date assessment of the Catholic understanding of conscience and how it relates to day-to-day issues in Catholic health care. The contributors explore a wide range of topics, including end-of-life care, abortion and sterilization, and the role of Catholic ethics particularly in hospital settings. With insights from key figures this book will serve as a useful text and reference for medical students and practitioners as well as a resource for ethics boards and chaplains in Catholic hospitals, most especially those merging with secular health institutions. In addition to the editors, contributors include Ron Hamel, Anne E. Patrick, Roberto Dell'Oro, Lisa Fullam, Kristin E. Heyer, John J. Paris, M. Patrick Moore, Jr., Cathleen Kaveny, Lawrence J. Nelson, Kevin T. FitzGerald, SJ, Gerald Coleman, Margaret R. McLean, Shawnee M. Daniels-Sykes, and Carol Taylor. (Publisher)