DigniSpace: Now and Beyond

Putting dignity into operation using PANEL Principles of Human Rights.

Dignispace is the culmination of 10 years of interdisciplinary collaboration between nurse educators, human rights law, educational technology, pedagogy, instructional design and experts in co-production. The collaboration began in 2013 through a shared interest in the concept of dignity. 

It’s recognised that the context in which care professionals are being asked to deliver care is changing.  There has been a shift from a paternalist to a collaborative, or co-produced model, in which professionals, patients and families form more reciprocal relationships.  It is nurses who are often at the centre of these relationships, charged with ensuring a dignified experience for all involved in the delivery of care. This project explores whether the shifting landscape of health care delivery, with its increased emphasis on participation and empowerment, impacted upon nursing students’ understandings of dignity practice. 

Dignispace is an innovative digital resource underpinned by the PANEL principles (Participation, Accountability, Non-Discrimination, Empowerment and Legality) and co-produced with students through interdisciplinary engagement as an output from the Dignity Engagement Space for Nurse Education using Human Rights based Approach (DESNEHRA) project funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust (2018 to 2024). Dignispace is the first digital resource that aims to help students / practitioners understand, interrogate and deliver dignity in care informed by a human rights framework. It aims to help health and social care professionals to confidently promote and advocate dignity in practice.  

Research-informed and co-produced open educational resources that facilitate learner-centred, meaningful and reflective learning with flexibility in health and social care are increasingly becoming the norm especially post pandemic. Dignity education that helps understand dignity as a fundamental human right has global relevance to empower practitioners working in any people facing roles even beyond health and social care contexts. 

Given this context, this project aims to further develop Dignispace as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) to enhance sustainability and ongoing updates to the resource with technical support and expertise longer term; wider reach and impact both within and outside the UK; seamless data generation and relevant metrics to inform evaluation and feedback. 

Funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust. The Sir Halley Stewart Trust supports innovative and pioneering Social, Medical and Religious projects, to enable human flourishing and to prevent suffering.