Violation of dignity in care-related situations

This study seeks to explore narratives of care-related violations for patients with life-threatening illness receiving palliative care. Narratives told in dialogues with the researcher were processed phenomenologically hermeneutically. Four structures of meanings are described: focal points in recalling the experiences, experienced consequences of being violated, relationships causing violation, and personal struggling. The phenomenon of care-related violations means a complex experience of suffering as being abandoned, confronted with hopelessness, and further wounded. This experience may be directed toward readiness to share, introspectiveness, willingness to comprehend the incomprehensible, the riskiness of facing others, and attentiveness to acts of caring. It can be experienced in various relationships to professionals, family members and friends, to the mass media, and to welfare systems. Care-related violating episodes reveal the vulnerability of the person who is already suffering and makes him or her still more wounded, when actually comfort is expected. To receive affirmation in the state of fragility with increased suffering provoked by care-related violations can contribute to a transformation from human degradation into dignity, finding meaning, or reaching reconciliation in suffering.