Dignity‐conserving care actions in palliative care: an integrative review of Swedish research
Sammanfattning
Background: Previous research has proposed that personsin need of palliative care often have a loss of functionsand roles that affects social and existential self-image.Moreover, these individuals also commonly suffer fromcomplex multisymptoms. This, together with the situa-tion of facing an impending death, can lead to a loss ofdignity. Therefore, supporting these persons’ dignity is acrucial challenge for professional nurses. The ‘DignityCare Intervention’ addresses the multidimensionality ofdignity by identifying patients’ dignity-related concernsand suggests care actions to address them. At the present,the Dignity Care Intervention is adapted for implementa-tion in Swedish care settings. Because expressions of dig-nity are influenced by culture, and an overview of careactions in a Swedish context is lacking, this integrativereview aimed to find suggestions from Swedish researchliterature on what kind of care actions can preservedignity.Methods: An integrative literature review was conductedusing the databases SwePub and SweMed+. Articlespublished from 2006 to 2015 and theses published from2000 to 2015 were searched for using the terms ‘dignity’and ‘palliative care’. Result sections of articles and theseswere reviewed for dignity-conserving care actions syn-thesised by thematic analysis and categorised underthemes and subthemes in Chochinov’s model of dignity.Results: Fifteen articles and 18 theses were includedtogether providing suggestions of care actions in allthemes and subthemes in the dignity model. Suggestedcare actions included listening, communication, informa-tion, symptom control, facilitating daily living andincluding patients in decision-making. Additionally,nurses’ perceptiveness towards the patients was a coreapproach.Conclusion: The review offers culturally relevant sugges-tions on how to address specific dignity-related concerns.The adapted Dignity Care Intervention will be a way forSwedish nurses to provide person-centred palliative carethat will conserve patients’ dignity. Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons.