What about dignity? The meaning and experience of terminally ill patients

Abstract

While a number of studies have focused on the palliative care ideal of dying with dignity, less attention has been given to the factors that are likely to influence the experience of dignity at the end of life. What has been neglected in these studies is the impact that the inability to act independently has upon a terminally ill patient’s sense of dignity. The present study aims to understand the ways in which the dignity of terminally ill patients is affected when they lose their ability to act as autonomous agents. Participant observation was conducted over a ten-month period in two Portuguese palliative care units for cancer and non-cancer patients, to complement interviewing techniques. A total of ten palliative care patients were interviewed for research purposes. Interviews were also conducted with twenty family members and twenty palliative care professionals. The preliminary results of this ongoing doctoral research will be presented.