Dignity: a tale of two wards
Published: 20 February 2013
New research and resources from Cardiff University - Hazel Heath reports
Dignity in practice: An exploration of the care of older adults in acute NHS trusts is a new National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)-funded study of older people’s experiences of acute NHS care in England and Wales. I attended the launch of this work at the end of last year.
Dr Winn Tadd and her team interviewed older patients and their relatives, as well as senior managers and ward staff. They also observed everyday practice in 16 wards across four acute NHS trusts. From this, recommendations on the provision of dignified care were developed.
Key among the recommendations is that patients and relatives should be encouraged to challenge practices that they deem are undignified and to be reassured that any views they express will be given careful consideration.
Other key recommendations are:
- to limit movement of patients within and between wards
- prioritising patient experience over targets
- that people with complex needs should be seen by a geriatrician
- organisational practices must take account of older people’s sensibilities, especially in relation to the gender of staff delivering intimate care
- environmental design must deliver dignified care.
The findings have also been dramatised on a DVD which illustrates older patients and relatives’ experiences in two wards – one with a positive culture offering person-centred care and another with depersonalised care and institutionalised practice.
The DVD, Dignity: a tale of two wards, has been distributed to acute hospital trusts and to universities for use in pre-registration education.
Information about the study findings can be found on the project’s webpage on the University of Cardiff website.
The full report can be found on the NIHR’s Health Services and Delivery Research Programme webpage.