Page 161 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

F r o m ca ra t i v e F a c t o r 8 t o C a r i t a s P r o C e s s 8
PrivaCy
Privacy is a major factor to consider with this Carative Factor. The
depersonalization and intimate questions, procedures, and treatments
connected with hospitalization contribute to the patient’s privacy con-
cerns. Hospital personnel’s expectation that the patient will share inti-
mate information and expose his or her body without reserve also
contributes to the patient’s loss of privacy. Often the basic support,
protection, or correction the nurse provides in the patient’s environ-
ment is intended to preserve the patient’s privacy.
Privacy was linked to health in the early work of Maslow (1968),
in that healthy people have a strong need for privacy. Some privacy
concerns include:
• The right to exclude others from certain knowledge about
oneself
• The awareness and appreciation that others have the same privi-
leges one desires for oneself

• Factors of time, place, manner, and amount of information
• Attempts to exclude oneself from others that may be voluntary
and temporary and that may involve physical and/or psychologi-
cal exclusion.
Privacy often maintains the patient’s human dignity and integ-
rity. A violation of privacy is often a violation of a person’s dignity.
Humiliation, embarrassment, and depersonalization often result from
an invasion of privacy.
One of the explicit dimensions of human caring theory and the
Caritas Model is the preservation of human dignity. However, this
feature has not always been made explicit in nursing practice until
very recently. For example, the North American Nursing Diagnosis
Association (NANDA) recently reviewed inclusion of a new/revised
diagnosis, “Compromised Human Dignity,” which indicated that peo-
ple are at risk for loss of respect and honor (Rosenberg 2006).

Human Dignity
Some of the identified risk factors with this new NANDA diagnosis
include (Rosenberg 2006):

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