Preserving Human Dignity in Palliative Care for Patients with Cancer: A Necessity for Person-Centered Care

Human dignity is a fundamental principle of palliative care for patients with cancer. However, preserving dignity requires moving beyond respectful behavior and privacy protection to address patients’ lived experiences, identity, autonomy, values, and preferences. Disease progression and increasing dependency may affect patients’ sense of control over their lives and their experience of dignity. Existing dignity assessment tools may not fully capture the complexity and changing nature of this experience; therefore, questionnaire-based assessments should be complemented by clinical conversations exploring patients’ concerns and individual needs. Evidence on dignity therapy suggests improvements in dignity-related distress, hope, and quality of life, although effects are not consistent across all outcomes, and cultural, implementation, and training challenges remain. Accordingly, dignity therapy should not be regarded as synonymous with dignity-conserving care. Integrating dignity preservation throughout the nursing process, from needs assessment and care planning to intervention implementation and outcome evaluation, is essential. Attention to patients’ preferences, participation in decision-making, preservation of autonomy whenever possible, empathetic communication, and ongoing care plan reassessment may support dignity-conserving practice. Staff education and systematic monitoring of care quality are also necessary to translate dignity from an ethical principle into a practical criterion for delivering and evaluating palliative care.

کلیدواژه ها:

Palliative Care ، Neoplasms ، Nursing Care ، Dignity Therapy. ، مراقبت تسکینی ، نئوپلاسم ها ، مراقبت پرستاری ، کرامت درمانی.