Mater Misericordiae Hospital Mackay - Queensland Centre for ...

Part D: Respectful CareRespectful care includes treating women with dignity, courtesy, kindness and understanding. Respectful care acknowledgeswomen’s individuality, reflects genuine care for their wellbeing, and allows them the time they need to make decisions. In anattempt to avoid typically high and less useful global ratings of health care, researchers have begun to move away from theconcept of patient satisfaction and focus on more useful specific patient experiences of care (Wiegers, 2009).We have reported on four indicators of respectful care.Indicator 7: Do care providers treat women with respect?The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights highlights that “patients and consumers have a right to receive care in a manner thatis respectful of their culture, beliefs, values and characteristics like age and gender” (ACSQHC, 2009). Women in receipt ofmaternity care services have a right to be treated with dignity and consideration by their care providers. The Code of GoodMedical Practice states that “good medical practice involves treating your patients with respect at all times” (AMC, 2009), whichcan be used as a target for delivering gold standard care.Indicator 8: Do care providers treat women with kindness and understanding?To provide holistic care during labour and birth, care providers should ensure that women’s needs are met both physically andpsychologically (ANMC, 2006). Having a care provider who demonstrates support and compassion is rated very highly bywomen as contributing to a positive experience of labour and birth (Lavender et al., 1999).Indicator 9: Do care providers genuinely care about women’s wellbeing?Woman-centred care is care that prioritises the needs and preferences of each individual woman over the needs of careproviders, facilities and the maternity care system. Demonstrating genuine care for women’s wellbeing can be seen as acomponent of delivering care that is genuinely woman-centred.Indicator 10: Do care providers respect women’s decisions?The Australian Medical Council supports the view that in order to deliver good patient care, care providers must respect andrecognise that patients have a right to make their own decisions about their care (AMC, 2009). While care providers have aresponsibility to provide unbiased information about all available options, the final decision in any given situation ultimatelyremains at the discretion of the patient. Part of respecting a woman in maternity care is also respecting her ability to makedecisions that are best suited to her individual needs and circumstances.20