But focus group participants said that these facilities were few and far between for African-Americans. Their comment was also that they did not know they had dignity until someone imparted the idea to them by speaking and acting. It was not inherent in them. The elements of dignity included self-respect vs. shame, honor vs. humiliation, decorum vs. inappropriate behavior, privacy vs. exposure, power vs. vulnerability, equality vs. favoritism, adulthood vs. infantilization, ego integrity vs. despair, individuation vs. objectification and autonomy vs. dependency. Older African-Americans experience being addressed in demeaning ways by caregivers. On the whole, the Black community did not trust or want their family members put into a home, having seen or heard about the abuse, which goes on there, and would rather rely on some other facility. Conclusion

Nurses and other health care professionals are bound to a Code, which obliges them to treat every patient and every individual with compassion and respect so as to elicit patients' cooperation and assure the best outcome of care. While these professionals confront personal and work environment strains and limitations, their patients' interests are always...

These professionals may or may not agree with patients' preferences and beliefs, but nurses must respect these preferences and beliefs and communicate that respect in all their professional activities and dealings. As recent studies showed, this was hardly the case in many settings, especially in the African-American communities, where the elderly and those nearing the end of life, are abused and discriminated against on account of their race. The nursing profession should address these realities and struggle to narrow the gap between these realities and what the Code obliges.
Bibliography

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3. New Mexico Nurse (2005). Code of Ethics with Interpretive Statements. New Mexico Nurses Association

4. Turner, W.L. (2004). The Last Mile of the Way: Understanding Caregiving in African-American Families at the End-of-Life. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy: American Association for Marriage and Family…