title: Revealing student nurses' perceptions of human dignity through curriculum co-design.
abstract: Dignity is a slippery concept to define - yet it has been at the heart of media and policy debates around the provision of health and social care in recent years; particularly in the United Kingdom following the Mid-Staffordshire scandal and subsequent Francis Inquiry. This paper considers the concept of dignity in care from the perspective of student nurses. Thus, it allows us to discuss how professional nurses-to-be conceptualise dignity and also how they consider it should/could be taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels of training, and as part of their Continuing Professional Development. It is only through understanding how student nurses conceptualise and experience human dignity, and the giving and receiving of dignity in care, that it will be possible to support its facilitation in the preparation of practitioners. This paper reports on findings from a series of participatory research workshops held with undergraduate nursing students in Scotland in 2013-14 that were designed to engage the students in the development of educational resources to support the teaching of dignity in care within the nursing curriculum. The outputs from each workshop, along with analysis of transcripts of the workshop discussions, demonstrate the value of co-design as a methodology for involving students in the development of interdisciplinary resources. We observed a desire from students to actively enhance their understandings of dignity - to be able to recognise it; to see dignity in care being practiced; to experience providing such care and to have the appropriate tools to reflect on their own experience. Overall, the research revealed a rich understanding of the ways in which human dignity is conceptualised by nursing students as an embodied practice, associated with memory and personal to an individual. It was understood by the students as shifting, experiential and fragile.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Research, University of the Highlands and Islands, An Lochran, 10 Inverness Campus, Inverness, IV2 NB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: sarah-anne.munoz@uhi.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sarah-Anne
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Munoz
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Stirling, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Macaden
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kyle
authors.affiliation: School of Law, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D010465:Perception; D028723:Personhood; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Care; Co-design; Dignity; Education; Nursing; UK