Dying with Dignity

About this course

Human dignity is the core of nursing. It manifests when a nurse respects a patient when providing care. The nurse must provide care to the dying patient and their family members that conforms with cultural beliefs and habits. Because death is an unavoidable phenomenon that everyone will experience regardless of health care that is provided, human dignity with respect to end-of-life care must be appreciated. Helping terminally ill patients and their families manage decisions regarding death is a central responsibility of nursing, and it is essential that nurses be given better tools with which to deliver spiritual care. The nurse must provide dignified, spiritually astute (outside of the religious realm), comprehensive care to the dying patient to allow death with dignity to occur.

Learning objectives

• Define human dignity as it relates to the dying patient
• Describe attributing factors to death anxiety, and ways to assist the patient and supporters in mediating the effects.
• Review the six attributes to spirituality, and how they influence the patient’s and supporter’s perceptions of death.
• Review the American Nurse Association Code of Ethics stance on assisted suicide.

Course outline

11 sections · finish in any order across devices

1. 1

   Introduction

   Dignity is a human right and it is a core nursing value. Death is inevitable, and it is something that we all will eventually experience. For the terminally ill, the realization of a drastically reduced life span can bring about death anxiety. Death anxiety, which is described as concerns and fears

   4 min

2. 2

   Dignity

   Dignity is derived from the Latin word dignities, which means originality and value. ⁴ Familial and cultural aspects are involved with the formation of dignity, which is synonymous with vocation, goal, and value.

   4 min

3. 3

   Death Anxiety

   Death anxiety: concerns and fears related to the process of death and dying⁴, is one of the main factors that can cause a loss of dignity and is also a major reason why terminally ill patients request euthanasia and assisted suicide. Death anxiety is a disorder that causes extreme levels of preoccup

   8 min

4. 4

   Spirituality

   Having the ability to define spirituality in a way that is congruent for most people is crucial to end-of-life research. Unfortunately, a common definition of spirituality has not been achieved. A recent literature review attempted to define spirituality through a framework consisting of its most commo

   4 min

5. 5

   Assisted Suicide

   Suicide consideration in the general population is often treated as a symptom of mental illness. Assisted suicide as a reasonable choice for the terminally ill however, is a subject of ongoing debate. Although legal and policy descriptions vary by state, nurses continue to care for patients who expr

   4 min

6. 6

   Patient-Centered Care

   An expectation of nursing practice is to provide patient-centered care, which recognizes the terminally ill patient or designated representative as a partner in the coordination of care based on the patient’s wishes. Competently providing patient-centered care at end of life is complicated by many v

   4 min

7. 7

   Discussion

   Confronting death and the anxiety created by knowledge that it is inevitable is a universal psychological quandary for everyone. For health care providers, death is an ever-present reality despite increases in technologically advanced health systems, longer patient survival rates, and cures from lif

   4 min

8. 8

   Conclusion

   Dying with dignity is an important aspect of clinical practice and nursing care. Caregiving is the basis of the nursing occupation and is a very general concept and encompasses all aspects of patient care, especially maintaining the dignity of the patient at the end of life. Dying with dignity has a

   4 min

9. 9

   Self-Assessment Review

   Please review the following scenarios and identify the differences in dignity between the two patients.

   4 min

10. 10

    Dying with Dignity Post-Test

    Providing care for the dying patient and their family that conforms to cultural beliefs and habits is one of the professional roles of the nurse.

    4 min

11. 11

    Dying with Dignity Post-Test Answers

    There are also four aspects of dignity: dignity as merit, dignity as moral stature, dignity of identity and dignity of Menschenwurde.

    6 min

This course satisfies

Requirement summaries come from our state requirement records. Always confirm details with your board before you renew.

References and resources

• An, E., Lo, C., Hales, S., Zimmermann, C., & Rodin, G. (2018). Demoralization and death anxiety in advanced cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 27(11), 2566-2572. doi:10.1002/pon.4843
• Firestone, R. W. (2018, May 18). Death anxiety. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-experience/201805/death-anxiety
• Gerber, L. (2018). Understanding the nurse’s role as a patient advocate. Nursing, 48(4), 55-58. doi:10.1097/01.nurse.0000531007.02224.65
• Hamric, A. B., Schwarz, J. K., Cohen, L., & Mahon, M. (2018). Assisted Suicide/Aid in Dying. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 118(5), 50-59. doi:10.1097/01.naj.0000532831.78142.40
• Hemati, Z., Ashouri, E., AllahBakhshian, M., Pourfarzad, Z., Shirani, F., Safazadeh, S., … Ziyaei, M. (2016). Dignity and Assisted Dying. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 25, 1218-1228. doi:10.1111/jocn.13143
• Lau, B. H., Wong, D. F., Fung, Y. L., Zhou, J., Chan, C. L., & Chow, A. Y. (2018). Facing death alone or together? Investigating the intgerdependence of death anxiety, dysfunctional attitudes, and quality of life in patient-caregiver dyads confronting lung cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 27, 2045-2051. doi:10.1002/pon4773
• Scott, P. A. (2017). Key Concepts and Issues in Nursing Ethics. Basingstoke, England: Springer.
• Snyder Sulmasy, L., & Mueller, P. S. (2017). Ethics and the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide: An American College of Physicians Position Paper. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(8), 576. doi:10.7326/m17-0938
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2015). The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. New York, NY: Random House.
• Tong, E., Deckert, A., Gani, N., Nissim, R., Rydall, A., Hales, S., … Lo, C. (2016). The meaning of self-reported death anxiety in advanced cancer. Palliative Medicine, 30(8), 772-779. doi:10.1177/0269216316628780
• Ulrich, C. M., & S., L. (2018). Nurses’ Role in Assisted Suicide/Aid in Dying. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 118(9), 10. doi:10.1097/01.naj.0000544953.52249.c6
• Vogelstein, E. (2017). Evaluating the American Nurses Association’s arguments against nurse participation in assisted suicide. Nursing Ethics, 26(1), 124-133. doi:10.1177/0969733017694619

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