Compassionate care is a process in which nurses interactively communicate with patients, try to explore patients' concerns by putting themselves in their positions and understanding their situations, and do their utmost to eliminate these concerns.
A compassionate nurse is empathetic to the pain and suffering of her patients, which is vital to the patient's well-being. Compassionate care makes patients more comfortable when they're in pain, feeling ill, or suffering from mental or emotional stress.
Our study showed that in interacting with patients, nurses should respect patients' beliefs and culture, maintain their dignity, and have friendly relations with them so that patients trust them and express their real feelings, needs and concerns.
Giving up a seat to a pregnant woman, being polite to retail workers, helping your friend move, taking a second to listen at work — compassion takes many forms.
For example, providing care to a person and listening to their wishes, being considerate to their beliefs, treating them with dignity, and working in accordance with best interests would demonstrate care in practice.
Expressing empathy and compassion include the use of nonverbal cues and positive gestures such as open body language, listening, making eye contact, taking notes, or repeating what a patient says to confirm understanding.
Showing compassion, offering reassurance, and listening actively calms patients, lowers blood pressure, and enables faster recuperation, reduced pain, and shorter hospital stays. The benefits have been consistently demonstrated in cases ranging from traumatic injuries to common colds.
Self-compassion is the ability to be compassionate to oneself, without this ability nurses might not be prepared to be compassionate to patients. Emotionally intelligent persons perceive themselves as confident, better able to understand, control and manage their emotions.
Compassion in nursing is so much more than being nice to patients. Compassion is about connecting with human beings on a level deeper than just “the GI bleeder in room 14 bed 2”. When nurses extend compassion, they provide the patient a sense of security.
A scoping review was conducted to assess the influence of self-compassion on midwives and nurses, and it reported that self-compassion appears to help reduce work-based stressors such as anxiety, compassion fatigue, and burnout in nurses and midwives [15].
Compassionate and humble leaders possess a sincere respect and concern for others and are able to act with empathy, understanding, and kindness. They don't consider themselves better or more important than anyone else, and they tend to demonstrate great generosity.
Compassion is about having the courage and the strength to turn towards pain and difficulty within ourselves or for others, because this is what is needed.
To be compassionate is to feel deeply for another person as they experience the ups and downs associated with life. To be compassionate is to not just tell someone that you care, but also to show them that you care by being there before they even ask for it.
Compassion in Practice was built on the values of the 6Cs (Care, Compassion, Communication, Courage, Competence, Commitment) and delivered improvement programmes through six work streams called Action Areas: 1. Helping people to stay independent, maximising well-being and improving health outcomes. 2.
Studies demonstrate how empathy improves patient satisfaction, treatment compliance and clinical outcomes. Patients are more likely to follow their treatment plan and practice self-care when they feel heard and understood.
Studies show that nurturing a more empathic relationship can lead to better outcomes for patients, fewer disputes with healthcare providers, and higher reimbursements due to greater patient satisfaction. On a more day-to-day basis, it also makes caring for patients a more rewarding experience.
Compassionate Empathy
Acknowledging their hurt is valuable, and affirming their reaction by showing signs of those feelings yourself even more so. But best of all is putting aside some time for them, and offering practical support or guidance on getting through the situation and preparing for next time.
Compassion involves: Understanding how others' experiences may be different from our own and how we can assist in their struggles. Recognising how our words and actions can affect those around us, both positively and negatively. Being able to tap into our own feelings as well as the feelings of others.
Focusing on compassion at work promotes healthy interpersonal relationships (Dutton & Ragins, 2007). It lets us acknowledge and appreciate others wholeheartedly and work for the organizational benefits, rather than personal gains. Compassion works by building trust, mutual connections, and reciprocation.