Maintaining dignity for residents of care homes: A qualitative study of the views of care home staff, community nurses, residents and their families

This study uses the Framework approach to qualitative analysis to explore and compare the views of residents in care homes for older people, their families and care providers on maintaining dignity. We interviewed 33 care home managers, 29 care assistants, 18 care home nurses, 10 community nurses, 16 residents and 15 members of residents' families. The most prevalent themes were: “independence,” and “privacy”; followed by “comfort and care,” “individuality,” “respect,” “communication,” “physical appearance” and “being seen as human.” Residents and their families sometimes described incidents where a resident's dignity had been compromised. How to help residents maintain dignity and focusing on fostering dignity, can be a starting point for improving the quality of care and quality of life of residents. It is, however, important to remove the gap between the rhetoric of dignity conserving care and the reality experienced by residents in these and other care settings.