Nursing students’ perceptions of patient dignity. Nursing Ethics

The qualitative research method is used in this study. Particularly, it is based on comments from nursing students regarding their perceptions of patients’ dignity during clinical practice. As a result, the study involved nursing students in a dialogue that allowed them to express themselves in a non-threatening setting. They also provided a personal definition of dignity and how they felt patients’ dignity was violated or enhanced. The collected data was analyzed utilizing Webb and Kevin’s suggestions.

The research clearly indicated the issue that sparked the need for this field of nursing study. According to the authors, there is need to examine the concept of patients’ dignity as viewed from several perspectives since this is a fundamental constituent of nursing care. However, most of the available information concentrates on the problem as viewed from patients’ and nurses’ perspective, thereby ignoring the student nurses’ opinions. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to explore this neglected perspective. Therefore, it is evident that there exists a problem of patients’ dignity as viewed from nursing students and the purpose of this research is to establish how they view it.

The problem of research in this study is related to a current area of nursing practice. Particularly, human dignity is not only an aspect of health care but also an essential element recognized by international organizations. On the other hand, every health care provider ought to understand that a patient is the center of attention in this field. To this effect, it is imperative to maintain their dignity during the delivery of services. The fact that student nurses are part of the healthcare fraternity makes the problem a component of current nursing practices.

The authors base their literature review on relevant sources. They provide contemporary definitions of human dignity as it relates to local and international organizations. Further, there is ample information associated with dignity as a fundamental human right as declared by United Nations. Such information corresponds to nursing training as required by the Royal College of Nursing declaration. From the universal perception of human dignity, the literature narrows down to healthcare point of view, which makes the whole concept relevant to the topic of research. On the other hand, the information available is current and corresponds to the subject of discussion.

From this research, it is evident that the authors rely on empirical research as the framework for their findings. In this model, people rely on observations from primary data obtained from direct observations and or experiences in that field of study. Much of the research is based on patients’ reports of humiliation, neglect, poor communication, and poor response to their needs. Such information is available in several findings recorded in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Additionally, they utilized observational studies about the dignity of patients as depicted in the nurses’ communication as well as physical education.

There is a clear definition of the research question in this study, which guides the authors throughout the study. The aim of the paper is to evaluate how nursing students perceive the respect for patients during their clinical practice. The research relies on the hypothesis that there exists a perception of human dignity, but nursing students have a different opinion from their experiences. As such, the research question is how do nursing students perceive patients’ dignity in their entire clinical practice?

Protection of human subjects and information consent is an important aspect of ethical research. To this end, every researcher must identify a means for protecting participants’ privacy as well as the right to respond to questions. This study achieves this milestone through a review and approval by the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee. The procedure was to help maintain ethical standards throughout the study. Additionally, the participants had sufficient information about their right to participate or withdraw from the study. Even though there was no written consent, the participation in any group acted as the informed consent explained to everyone in the beginning of each forum, which was verbally accepted by all.

Every research aims at making a contribution to the field of study. Similarly, this evaluation in the area of patient care targeted a particular significance through its study of the patients’ dignity for nursing students during their clinical practice. Notably, the researchers recognize the role of nursing students in future. In this regard, their opinions about this problem are relevant to nursing educators as well as in the efforts to maintain quality patient care. Additionally, the results of the study are important to policy makers and other relevant health care stakeholders.

After evaluating the aspects of this research, I find it useful when making decisions during clinical practice. The reason for this stance is that human dignity transcends across multiple fields including health care. Similarly, an understanding of human dignity during clinical practice is an essential tool in the future as a registered nursing. Besides, patients’ respect is a part of current nursing practices, and therefore, the information gained from this research is relevant.