Dignity, privacy, respect and choice—A scoping review of measurement of these concepts within acute healthcare practice

Aims and objectives To synthesise and review literature related to instruments that measure psychosocial aspects of fundamental care in acute hospital care settings. Background Psychosocial aspects of care often receive less priority in terms of care provision in acute care environments. At the same time, if these elements are overlooked, there may be consequences. Despite the availability of many instruments designed to measure specific aspects of care, these concepts are often not studied within the broader context of fundamentals of care, but rather coexist as isolated explorations of specific subelements. Design A scoping review was conducted, based on Arksey & O’Malley's (2005) methodological framework and following the PRISMA checklist. Methods Using the five recommended steps—identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; and summarising and reporting the results—three databases were searched: MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL and EMBASE, in February 2019. Results Following independent screening by two of the authors, 48 papers were included. From these 48 papers, 33 instruments were identified. Only five of these tools thoroughly assessed psychosocial aspects elements of care (dignity, respect, privacy and patients’ choice) through dedicated items. Conclusions This review provides nurses with a synthesis of 33 instruments that assess the psychosocial aspects of care. This provides an important resource to guide measurement of dignity, respect, privacy and patients’ choice. The findings also provide guidance to future research in this field. Relevance to clinical practice This paper reviews and synthesises these instruments to provide a resource to nurses to inform their decisions and practice around measurement and evaluation of these key aspects of care. This provides a useful guide to measure and monitor the improvement of fundamental care delivery in practice and points to strengths and weaknesses of the instruments concerned.