Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of dignity-preserving care for older home-dwelling women with incurable cancer in Norway

ABSTRACT

Municipal end-of-life care for older home-dwelling patients with cancer is a complex matter requiring healthcare professionals (HCPs) to recognize gender differences in a social, historical and organizational context. A qualitative approach was chosen to explore and identify HCPs value-based principles and organizational conditions promoting dignity-preserving care practice for these women. HCPs recognized the importance of sheltering the women’s identity, their sense of being home and acknowledged their personal preferences as value-based principles, whereas creating a flexible culture of care, establishing a functional professional collaboration and developing individualized plans of care, were crucial organizational conditions influencing the practice of dignity-preserving care.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s health
• end-of-life care
• dignity

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the HCP’s trusting engagement in sharing their perceptions, and for the valuable collaboration with representatives in our advisory board and reference group.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Dam Foundation and University of Bergen.