Compassion in Nursing NU 315 Concepts of Health & Nursing Shelly Howell Compassion, or caring can be viewed as “nursing’s most precious asset” (Schantz, 2007), a fundamental element of nursing care (Dietze and Orb, 2000), and as one of the strengths of the profession. According to Torjuul et al (2007), it involves being close to patients and seeing their situation as more than a medical scenario and routine procedures. Compassion is to feel passion with someone, to enter sympathetically into their sorrow, suffering, pain or situation and desire and attempt to alleviate the sorrow, suffering, pain or need. Compassion knows when to be the shoulder to cry on and when to be the motivator for life changing health habits. Compassion is; treating not only the diagnosis but the person, the person with feelings, the person who is going to cry sometimes. Compassion is not a single quality rather an umbrella that encompasses many qualities. Compassion, in its many appearances is the key to experience again what lies at the heart of nursing practice all over the world. It is absolutely essential that nurses start to return to compassion as a central focus for nursing practice. Compassionate care is a key product of healthcare providers and is expected by the public (Burdett Trust for Nursing, 2006). It is also a vital aspect of good nursing care (Johnson, 2008). I believe compassion is no quality that is learned. It is a quality that is
Compassion is one of the fundamental characteristics implemented into patient care by health care providers. Compassion signifies “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering” (Compassion, n.d.). Nurses and other health care providers provide selfless service, tireless dedication, compassion, and often neglect their personal needs, which
Compassion is very important when working closely with patients in the hospital. Compassion means your attitude represents that you truly care about a person and their situation, you can empathize and try to understand
Compassion is that feeling that motivates a person to help another human in need. Whether that need is an emotional, physical, or spiritual need. When caring for another human being, as nurses, we cannot help but feel that urge to help the person in front of us. We want to find the details that can
The purpose of this essay is to look at barriers of compassion and what nurses could do overcome these barriers. Three sub topics will be looked at over the course of this essay and a conclusion will be made to evaluate these essays findings and to provide some input into battling these barriers so that patients can receive high standards of patient care.
Sawbridge and Hewison (2015) believe that compassion is important to the delivery of patient care. However, professionals are working in environments that are increasingly targeted which can take the professionals away from delivering compassionate care (Baverstock and Finley 2016). This assignment aims to discuss how important and how realistic it is for health and social care leaders to balance compassion with effective and efficient service delivery. It aims to do this by exploring what is meant by the term compassion and the influence that it has on patient care. The author will then move on to discuss the impact compassion has on service delivery, considering if professionals need to balance compassion with effective and efficient care delivery including the if compassion is in fact required to deliver effective care.
others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” My precept is that it lies at the heart of all
Compassion and respect are essential attitudes for nursing practice. Compassion has been described as the “wounding of the heart” or a
Compassion has little to no boundries. In almost every great story there is a specific character or a group of characters that help the protagonist because they feel bad for them. Compassion is the most important aspect of a functioning society; therefore, Elie Wiesel’s Night, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and the generosity of spirit shown by the average citizen after the recent shooting in Las Vegas are all perfect examples.
Health caregivers are the group of people mostly at risk of developing compassion fatigue. Most of the times, compassion fatigue may be as a result of the situations the care providers encountered and the pain they feel for their patients. One of the vital element of healthcare is providing a compassionate care. Compassion is defined as being aware of other people suffering, and desire to help to them reduce the suffering (Ruysschaert, 2009). Compassion fatigue is seen as a form of burnout that affect the health care provider which manifest itself as physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion (Lynch & Lobo, 2012). The four major factors that can lead to compassion fatigue are, giving others too much caring and not enough care to self, unresolved past trauma, inability to control stress at work, and lack of satisfaction in the work (Ruysschaert, 2009). Compassion fatigue occurs when the caregivers are milked of their sense of wellbeing, comfort, their purpose in life, strength and all the good qualities they have. It is important for those that caring for others to also pay attention to their own needs. Taking care of your own needs means that you will be healthy and therefore be more able to care for others. The caregiver needs to be able to recognize and discuss compassion in order to avoid it.
When one thinks about nursing, caring, empathy, and compassion come to mind. There exists a link, an unbreakable union, for nurses that "compassion fatigue
Compassion, though seemingly straight-forward, is actually a complex beast, springing from a variety of sources, including some less than flattering ones. These sources can include pity, fear, and self advancement, which are rarely associated with something as “good” as being compassionate. However, in “On Compassion”, by Barbara Ascher argues that compassion is something that must be learned through experience, not something one is born knowing, by giving examples of the actions of those who have enough towards those who do not, in order to stress the importance of taking note of others and their situations.
According to Burkhartd (), “compassion is the ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another” (p.50). Majority of the population has experienced a form of illness or another at some point in life. Previous encounters with particular situations help people to understand exactly what someone is going through. A nurse may come across a patient who is suffering from the same type of cancer that his/her grandfather once did or a child who fractured the same bone he/she did during childhood. Previous experiences don’t have to be lived to fully understand each situation, sometimes repetitious occurrences help. For example, the nurse could also understand a particular circumstance because he/she cared for many others who suffered from the same illness. It helps the nurse remember what if this were my grandfather, who was in the exact situation? What helped the most when that happened to me? These prior experiences bring about feelings of compassion and motivation to care for this patient with the best of his/her abilities. The essential nursing value of altruism also motivates people to help those in need. As a healthcare provider, it’s important to have faith in the human race and have a sincere concern for human beings. Without the concern for mankind there would be no desire to help those in
Compassion represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures
Compassion is a crucial aspect of nursing; it involves seeing the patients as more than just a medical problem. Patients look to nurses as a source of comfort to help them deal with their emotions and understand their medical problems. In Norway, a study was conducted to find the role of compassion in nursing and
As an RN, three things that I hold dearly, which motivate my efforts, are compassion, integrity, and objectivity. These traits are the essential features that make the foundation for my views and way of practice. Compassion is the key element that has facilitated my ability to perceive and appreciate the uniqueness of individual patients and their needs. Additionally, this inherent quality has allowed me to be sensitive and understand the different behaviors of patients. Over the course of my medical profession, I have experienced that without compassion, one cannot have the enthusiasm or determination that is needed to help others, learn new things, or for that matter, make a difference for a better tomorrow. Synonymous with compassion