What’s Dignity Got To Do With It? Patient Experience of the Dignity Care Intervention: A Qualitative Evaluation Study

The delivery of palliative care in the community setting has been recognized as a valued and challenging aspect of nursing care.
To this end, care pathways have been shown to support nurses in a variety of settings to deliver individualized patient care.
This study provides a qualitative evaluation of an end-of-life intervention known as the Dignity Care Intervention (DCI) based
on patients’ perspectives. The DCI consists of four sections: a manual, the Patient Dignity Inventory, reflective questions, and
evidence-based care actions. A qualitative design underpinned by the philosophy of Merlau-Ponty was employed for the
evaluation of the DCI. Data collection included individual interviews with participants (n ¼ 25). Interview data were analyzed
using framework thematic analysis. Four theme categories were identified: ‘‘experience of DCI,’’ ‘‘responding to my illness
concerns,’’ ‘‘how illness affects me as a person,’’ and ‘‘how illness concerns affect my relationships.’’ The DCI was found to
enable patients to discuss openly important issues with community nurses that they might not otherwise have raised.
Participants conveyed satisfaction with the support they received through the DCI. The use of care pathways detailing
interventions to manage clinical problems and ensure systematic integration of the best available evidence into care delivery
can improve end-of-life care.