Dignity and Privacy
The term “Dignity” honours a theme of a persons self respect and self worth. How carers communicate with those in care is central to upholding best practices in dignity and privacy. Excellent communication combined with effective and regular training and the implementation of a processes and systems greatly enhance quality of life by showing respect for the dignity and privacy in care. Some examples of not honouring a persons dignity are:
- Being ignored, unheard or made to feel like a nuisance
- Treated like an object, engaging in little or no communication, when needs are being attended to
- Treating those in care as though they are stupid or talking to them like they are children
- Generally propensity to be disrespectful to those in car
Respecting privacy will vary from person to person as some people are innately more private than others. However, there are some best practices the course covers to highlight areas to assist carers in taking account of the privacy needs of those in care. Areas staff might consider are
- Allowing those in care personal space that is not pried upon or invaded without their express permission
- A sensitivity towards things like gender and culture and this effect how those in care want to be treated
- Staff should avoid putting those in care in positions that make them embarrassed or humiliated
The course will start by defining dignity and privacy within the healthcare sector, and will explain how the two are quite often linked. It will then go on to give you a range of useful professional tips about setting up the right working relationship with your service users, and discuss some of the issues that can arise when dignity and privacy are not respected. For full information on social care in the UK, the NHS have produced Social Care and Support Guide
| Course Content | Module |
| Overview of the course | 1 |
| Understanding the principles | 2 |
| Dignity – Good practice Part 1 | 3 |
| Dignity – Good practice Part 2 | 4 |
| Privacy – Good Practice | 5 |
| Self-care | 6 |
| Overcoming barriers to dignity and privacy | 7 |
Course Assessment
Online assessment for this dignity and privacy awareness is carried out by a series of multiple choice questions. Candidates must answer 70% of the questions correctly to pass each module. We advise you to complete each module and answer the question before moving on to the next module. This provides a better learning experience because you will need to have knowledge from earlier modules to understand some of the material in the later modules. For those who complete the course successfully, a PDF certificate of the award is sent directly to your inbox. Hard copies of the award are available on request. The course takes 50 minutes of training to complete. This is course content only and does not cover the time it takes to answer questions.