Dignity at stake – relatives’ experiences of influencing dignified care in nursing homes

Background: Dignity, in the care of older nursing home residents, has been an increasingly part of the public discourse the recent years. Despite a growing body of knowledge about dignity and indignity in nursing homes, we have less knowledge of how relatives experience their role in this context. This study is a follow-up to a previous study in nursing homes, which gave rise to concern about the relatives’ descriptions of residents’ dignity. The aim of this current study is to critically discuss relatives’ experiences of influencing the dignified care of residents of nursing homes. Methods: Methodologically, the study is informed by a critical hermeneutic stance, where the analysis is guided by a qualitative interpretive approach and a humanizing framework. This is a secondary analysis that includes data from five semi-structured focus groups from a previous study. The participants were 18 relatives of 16 residents living in two nursing homes in rural northern Norway. Results: The main theme in this study, preventing missed care when dignity is at stake, is identified when relatives of nursing homes experience that they are able to influence dignified care by (a) pinpointing to prevent missed care and (b) compensating when dignity is threatened. Conclusions: Despite their stated good intentions to safeguard dignity, relatives of nursing homes experience being alienated in their attempts to change what they describe as undignified and unacceptable practice into dignified care. The relatives’ observations of dignity and indignity are, contrary to what national and international regulations require, not mapped and/or used in any form of systematic quality improvement work. This indicates that knowledge-based practice in nursing homes, including the active application of user and relative knowledge, has untapped potential to contribute to quality improvement towards dignified care.