In eight profound months, beginning in October of 2010, my perceptions of time, communication, dignity, and the power of intention were forever altered by the paradoxical process of helping my ninety-pound, 16 year old Weimaraner companion named Yeager live well as a very old dog, for as long as nature allowed.
Beyond this, certain domains such as communication, dignity and autonomy have been shown in studies to positively impact on treatment outcomes [ 6, 7].
The concept that relates to patient orientation and showing respect for persons in mental health care consists of eight domains: autonomy, confidentiality, communication, dignity, social support, attention, basic amenities and choice.
Numerous patient accounts were heard by the Inquiry, including negative experiences of fundamental aspects of nursing care including care such as communication, maintaining dignity, discharge planning and safety.
It has been suggested by Chochinov (personal communication) that Dignity Therapy is not suitable for patients with a score equal to or greater than 15.
The original responsiveness concept focused on eight aspects of patient-reported experience, selected for their relevance to health systems performance: autonomy, choice, communication, confidentiality, dignity, prompt attention, quality of basic amenities, and support (access to family and community support networks).
Even though the care-related aspects are not covered by the social domain, and required the addition of a separate care domain, and the results of this study demonstrated the importance of care and communication for dignity, it is still debatable whether a separate domain for care is the best option.
Communication (55.4%), dignity (54.1%), and quality of facilities (52.0%) were rated as "extremely important" responsiveness domains.
In the multiple-generalized ordered logistic regression model, the response variables included prompt attention, dignity, communication, autonomy, choice of provider and quality of facilities.
They reflect public anxiety, with patients and families making 22,845 complaints to the NHS in 2011 on issues relating to staff attitudes, communication, and patient dignity [ 11].
The concept of responsiveness is multi-dimensional and can be measured across various domains including prompt attention, dignity, communication, autonomy, choice of provider, quality of facilities, confidentiality and access to family support.
