Beholding & Upholding Human Dignity in the Nursing Profession

Abstract

This work highlights the absence and need for a nursing conceptualization of dignity, including how gaps in the nursing literature inadequately equip the profession to articulate and defend dignity. Essays by the President’s Council for Bioethics show how Ruth Macklin’s claims of the uselessness of dignity can be compellingly contested with the position that human dignity is greater than, and certainly not interchangeable with, the principle of respect for autonomy. Of these essays, Daniel P. Sulmasy’s, Leon R. Kass’s, and Edmund D. Pellegrino’s theories present a conceptualization of dignity that is truthful, substantive, and defensible for nursing. Sulmasy offers a practical guide which can facilitate the upholding of dignity by nurses at the bedside. This guide aligns with Kass’s insight into upholding dignity in the form of reverence in the face of vulnerability, as well as admiration in the face of excellence. Sulmasy’s guide supports the intersubjective notion of dignity presented by Pellegrino by listing the guide as moral imperatives, or duties. Pellegrino’s understanding of dignity as a lived, intersubjective experience fully encompasses the nursing profession’s idea of human dignity by showing the fullness of human nature, the reverence owed to vulnerability as well as excellence, and the recognition of dignity in the realities of daily life. This work situates the intersubjectivitiy of the nurse-patient interaction in a highly technical setting in light of this conception of dignity, arguing that the more intensively technological the medical setting, the more imperative it is to respond to the dignity that is discussed.