Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Background:

This study examines nurses’ perceptions of dignity in themselves and their work. Nurses commonly assert concern for human dignity as a component of the patients’ experience rather than as necessary in the nurses’ own lives or in the lives of others in the workplace. This study is exploratory and generates potential relationships for further study and theory generation in nursing.

Research questions:

What is the relationship between the construct nurses’ sense of dignity and global self-esteem, work satisfaction, and identified personal traits?

Participants and research context:

This cross-sectional correlation study used a stratified random sample of nurses which was obtained from a US University alumni list from 1965 to 2009 (N = 133).

Ethical considerations:

University Institutional Review Board approval was achieved prior to mailing research questionnaire packets to participants. Participation was optional and numerical codes preserved confidentiality.

Findings:

Statistical results indicated a moderately strong association between the nurse’s sense of personal dignity and self-esteem (r_x = .62, p = .000) with areas of difference clarified and discussed. A positive but moderate association between nurses’ personal dignity and nurses’ work satisfaction (r_x = .37, p = .000) and a similar association between self-esteem and nurses’ work satisfaction (r_s = .29, p = .001) were found. A statistically significant difference was found (F = 3.49 (df = 4), p = .01) for dignity and categories of spiritual commitment and for nurses’ personal dignity when ratings of health status were compared (F = 21.24 (df = 4), p = .000).

Discussion:

Personal sense of dignity is discussed in relation to conceptual understandings of dignity (such as professional dignity) and suggests continued research in multiple cultural contexts.

Conclusion:

The relationships measured show that nurses’ sense of dignity has commonalities with self-esteem, workplace satisfaction, spiritual commitment, and health status; the meaning of the findings has ramifications for the welfare of nurses internationally.

Keywords

Nurses’ dignity professional dignity self-esteem spirituality work satisfaction

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baillie

Gallagher

. Raising awareness of patient dignity. Nurs Stand 2012; 27(5): 44–49.

Jacelon

Henneman

. Dignity in the older critically ill adult: the family member’s perspective. Heart Lung 2014; 21(5): 432–436.

Manookian

Cheraghi

Nasrabadi

. Factors influencing patients’ dignity: a qualitative study. Nurs Ethics 2014; 21(3): 323–334.

Sabatino

Stievano

Rocco

. The dignity of the nursing profession: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research. Nurs Ethics 2014; 21(6): 659–672.

Stievano

De Marinis

Russo

. Professional dignity in nursing in clinical and community workplaces. Nurs Ethics 2012; 19(3): 341–356.

Newman

. Health as expanding consciousness. 2nd ed. New York: National League for Nursing Press, 1994.

Watson

. Caring science: belonging before being as ethical cosmology. Nurs Sci Q 2005; 18(4): 304–305.

Eriksson

. Caring science in a new key. Nurs Sci Q 2002; 15(1): 61–65.

Peplau

. Interpersonal relations in nursing. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1952.

10.

Copp

. Stealing a nurse’s dignity. J Prof Nurs 1997; 13(2): 63–64.

11.

Griffin-Heslin

. An analysis of the concept dignity. Accid Emerg Nurs 2005; 13(4): 251–257.

12.

Baillie

Gallagher

. Respecting dignity in care in diverse care settings: strategies of UK nurses. Int J Nurs Pract 2011; 17: 336–341.

13.

American Nurses Association. ANA code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements, http://www.nursingworld.org/Mobile/Code-of-Ethics (2001, accessed 5 January 2015).

14.

International Council of Nurses. The ICN code of ethics for nurses, http://www.icn.ch/icncode.pdf (2012, accessed 1 June 2014).

15.

Lawless

Moss

. Exploring the value of dignity in the work-life of nurses. Contemp Nurse 2007; 24: 225–236.

16.

Stievano

Alvaro

Russo

. The value of nursing professional dignity. Int Nurs Perspect 2009; 9(3): 97–105.

17.

Gallagher

. The respectful nurse. Nurs Ethics 2007; 14(3): 366.

18.

Vandemark

. Awareness of self and expanding consciousness: using nursing theories to prepare nurse-therapists. Issues Mental Health Nurs 2006; 27: 605–615.

19.

Wiegman

. The development and psychometric testing of the dignity instrument. PhD Dissertation, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 2003. Retrieved from UMI ProQuest Dissertations (3115003).

20.

Yalden

McCormack

. Constructions of dignity: a pre-requisite for flourishing in the workplace? Int J Older People Nurs 2010; 5: 137–147.

21.

The Royal College of Nursing. Defending dignity. British publication code 003 257, 2008, http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/166655/003257.pdf

22.

Tschudin

. Ethics in nursing: the caring relationship. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003.

23.

Noddings

. Caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral decision making. Berkeley, CA; Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1984.

24.

Gallagher

. Dignity and respect for dignity – two key health professional values: implications for nursing practice. Nurs Ethics 2004; 11(6): 587–599.

25.

Jacelon

Connelly

Brown

. A concept analysis of dignity for older adults. J Adv Nurs 2004; 48(1): 76–83.

26.

Nordenfelt

. The varieties of dignity. Health Care Anal 2004; 12(2): 69: 81.

27.

Edlund

Lindwall

von Post

. Concept determination of human dignity. Nurs Ethics 2013; 20(8): 851–860.

28.

The Morris Rosenberg Foundation, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (n.d.), http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/Research/rosenberg.htm (accessed 5 May 2009).

29.

Rosenberg

. Society and the adolescent self-image. Revised ed. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.

30.

Aiken

Patrician

. Measuring organizational traits of hospitals: the revised nursing work index. Nurs Res 2000; 49(3): 146–153.

31.

Yildirim

. Bullying among nurses and its effects. Int Nurs Rev 2009; 56(4): 504–511.

32.

Simons

. Workplace bullying experienced by Massachusetts registered nurses and the relationship to intention to leave the organization. Adv Nurs Sci 2008; 31(2): E48–E59.

33.

Roberts

DeMarco

Griffin

. The effect of oppressed group behavior on the culture of the nursing workplace: a review of evidence and interventions for change. J Nurs Manag 2009; 17(3): 288–293.

34.

Cleary

Hunt

Walter

. Dealing with bullying in the workplace: toward zero tolerance. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv 2009; 47(12): 34–41.

35.

Sturm

. Ethics and care: an ethnographic study of psychiatric community health nursing practice. Arch Psychiatr Nurs 2004; 18(3): 106–115.

36.

McSteen

Peden-McAlpine

. The role of the nurse as advocate in ethically difficult care situations with dying patients. J Hosp Palliat Nurs 2006; 8(5): 259–269.

37.

Millette

. Client advocacy and the moral orientation of nurses. West J Nurs Res 1993; 15: 607–618.

38.

Nahigian

. Factors associated with the advocacy decisions of registered professional nurses employed as staff nurses in inpatient adult care hospitals. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 2003.

39.

Polit

Beck

. Nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008, pp. 602–606.

40.

Oosterveld-Vlug

Pasman

HRW

van Gennip

. Assessing the validity and intra-observer agreement of the MIDLAM-LTC; an instrument measuring factors that influence personal dignity in long-term care facilities. Health Qual Life Outcome 2014; 12: 17.

41.

Chochinov

Hassard

McClement

. The patient dignity inventory: a novel way of measuring dignity-related distress in palliative care. J Pain Symptom Manage 2008; 36(6): 559–571.

42.

Loubser

Herbst

. Developing a dignity instrument to measure the outcomes of palliative home-based care. Afr J Nurs Midwifery 2010; 12(2): 83–95.

43.

Johnston

Östlund

Brown

. Evaluation of the dignity care pathway for community nurses caring for people at the end of life. Int J Palliat Nurs 2012; 18(10): 483–489.

44.

Albers

Pasman

HRW

Rurup

. Analysis of the construct of dignity and content validity of the patient dignity inventory. Health Qual Life Outcome 2011; 9: 45.

45.

Periyakoil

Noda

Kraemer

. Assessment of factors influencing preservation of dignity at life’s end: creation and the cross-cultural validation of the preservation of dignity card-sort tool. J Palliat Med 2010; 13(5): 495–500.

46.

Vlug

de Vet

HCW

Pasman

HRW

. The development of an instrument to measure factors that influence self-perceived dignity. J Palliat Med 2011; 14(5): 578–586.

47.

Jacelon

Dixon

Knafl

. Development of the attributed dignity scale. Res Gerontol Nurs 2009; 2: 202–213.

48.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. The registered nurse population: findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. 2010, http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/rnsurveys/rnsurveyfinal.pdf

49.

Cohen

. Statistical power analysis for the social sciences. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988.

50.

Shahriari

Mohammadi

Abbaszadeh

. Nursing ethical values and definitions: a literature review. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res 2013; 18(1): 1–8.

51.

Rassin

. Nurses’ professional and personal values. Nurs Ethics 2008; 15(5): 614–630.

52.

Lindwall

Boussaid

Kulzer

. Patient dignity in psychiatric nursing practice. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 2012; 19(7): 569–576.

53.

Kangasniemi

Stievano

Pietila

. Nurses perceptions of their professional rights. Nurs Ethics 2013; 20(4): 459–469.

54.

Vanlaere

Gastmans

. A personalist approach to care ethics. Nurs Ethics 2011; 18(2): 161–173.

55.

Wainwright

Gallagher

. Demonstrating dignity. Nurs Stand 2008; 23(10): 24–26.

56.

Dwyer

Andershed

Nordenfelt

. Dignity as experienced by nursing home staff. Int J Older People Nurs 2009; 4: 185–193.

57.

Fairchild

. Practical ethical theory for nurses responding to complexity in care. Nurs Ethics 2010; 17(3): 353–362.

58.

Moore

Leahy

Sublett

. Understanding nurse-to-nurse relationships and their impact on work environments. Medsurg Nurs 2013; 22(3): 172–179.

59.

Berry

Gillespie

Gates

. Novice nurse productivity following workplace bullying. J Nurs Scholarsh 2012; 44(1): 80–87.

60.

Cleary

Hunt

Horsfall

. Identifying and addressing bullying in nursing. Issues Ment Health Nurs 2010; 31: 331–335.

61.

Pesut

Fowler

Reimer-Kirkham

. Particularizing spirituality in points of tension: enriching the discourse. Nurs Inq 2009; 16(4): 337–346.

62.

Ireland

. Palliative care: a case study and reflections on some spiritual issues. Br J Nurs 2010; 19(4): 237–239.

Exploring nurses' personal dignity,global self-esteem and work satisfaction

Abstract

Background:

Research questions:

Participants and research context:

Ethical considerations:

Findings:

Discussion:

Conclusion:

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References