Page 162 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

Fr om carative Fa c t o r 8 t o C ar it as ProC e s s 8
• Exposure of one’s body
• Perceived invasion of privacy
• Inadequate participation in decision making
• Disclosure of confidential information
• Loss of control of body functions
• Use of undefined medical terms
• Perceived dehumanizing treatment
• Perceived humiliation

• Stigmatizing labels.
It is a breakthrough that these threats to privacy are now being named
and identified as specific acts that need caring attention to alleviate.
Privacy needs and human dignity overlap in that attending to these
needs is a very important function for human behavior and preserving
the unique humanness and integrity of self and other. Steps in attend-
ing to these needs include, for example:

• Maintaining personal autonomy, one’s uniqueness as a human
being.
• Providing emotional release and a sense of safety and protection
from stress and strains in the outer-world environment.
• Engaging in self-affirmation, reflection, by which one is able to
pause, reflect, explore, and integrate feelings and experiences.
This function of preserving privacy and sustaining human dig-
nity may be closely related to the spiritual or creative-meditative
activities that bring meaning to one’s life.

• Allowing for limited and protective, intimate communication.
This function of privacy and human dignity allows for safely
sharing confidential, intimate information and setting boundar-
ies and social distances in trusting interpersonal/transpersonal
relationships.

Obviously, a number of variables affect privacy and the ways it
manifests itself in social-cultural behavior and helps sustain human
dignity. For example, some African tribes have no word or equivalent
term for privacy. Westerners have attempted to explain the concept of

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