The Medical Field : Compassion And Social Connectedness During Patient Interaction

For my book review assignment, I decided to choose the book titled “The Other End of the Stethoscope: 33 Insights for excellent patient care”. This story deal with Marcus and how he experiences the good and the bad of patient care after suffering severe injuries from a drunk driver. The reason I decided to choose this book is because this book provided a great perspective from the patient point of view of how a patient is cared for and treated in the hospital setting. One of the most important themes from the book was to understand the relationship between the caregiver and the patient, which is patient care. Marcus states the relationship between the health care provider and the patient are similar to that of a relationship between a parent and a child. The patient depends on us and looks to us for support and comfort. One of the fundamental components of forming good patient care is to be compassionate. Compassionate care could mean the difference between life and death for a patient. From reading this book, I understand that giving compassion to someone can take all shapes and forms. As a healthcare provider, we could make such a difference for a patient in need. You could have such a huge impact on patient, even if you only deal with one for a few minutes. Simple ordinary gestures of kindness such as telling a patient you are here for them or a simple smile can give a patient a good impression of the kind of care he or she will receive. For Marcus, it was the medical

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

The ten carative factors are: humanistic-altruistic system of values, faith-hope, sensitivity to self and others, developing helping-trusting caring relationship, expressing emotions and feelings, individualized problem solving caring process, transpersonal teaching-learning, providing supportive environment, gratifying human needs and allowance of existential-phenomenological and spiritual forces (Parker & Smith, 2014, p. 357-358). The second concept transpersonal caring, stresses on, going beyond one’s ego and physical self to connect with and tap into the patient’s healing. The caring moment explains the coming together and the occurrence of a human-human transaction (Watson,

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

developing a rapport with ones patients and that a little compassion and understanding can mean the world to a

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.

When choosing to pursue a career in the health care field, most enter the workplace with the desire to help and provide care for patients who are critically ill (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Far too often, these health professionals who were once sympathetic and caring become victims of compassion fatigue (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). As a working health professional it is ones duty to compassionately care for the sick, wounded and traumatized patients, which involves being exposed daily to the patient’s pain, suffering and trauma (Coetzee & Klopper, 2010). Experiencing this type of trauma first hand is an un-recognized side effect of being a health care professional (Briscoe, 2014). It is easy to get wrapped up in patients, their

Compassion is another valuable attribute of caring. Compassion is the sense of concern for others and their less than desirable situations. According to Perry (2009), compassion is the attention to minute details, generally exhibited in a face-to-face interaction with a patient/client (p. 18) and should be implemented when providing patient care and interventions. Attentiveness goes a long ways to enhance the well-being and quality of care provided to a patient/client. This in turn, establishes trust amongst a nurse/caregiver and a patient/client.

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

In both Buddhism and Christianity, there are critical component of healing such as prayers, meditation, belief and yoga. In holistic medical care, the medical personnel must take care of all aspect of the patient which includes the body, the emotions and the spiritual. The doctors and nurses should ensure that that they offer all necessary support that is

Traditional hospitals using standard medical treatment and Western-educated personnel tend to treat the patient's physical being while ignoring other equally important aspects of the patient and the caregiver. Fortunately, healing hospitals have transformed the concept of healing through the principle of "Radical Love." Recognizing the equal importance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing for all members of the hospital environment, Radical Love enhances the entire wellbeing of the entire community.

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

Being compassionate and available to provide support to the patients and their families in difficult times

I think it’s essential to your profession to be aware of your attendance, to work well with your co-workers, to practice dressing appropriately for your job, and to be attentive to your patients; this can transmit or be viewed as achievements. I practice these qualities of values by having proper etiquettes, thinking oneself as efficient in care, by my body language, maintaining a well-ordered body appearance, and maintaining eye contact with whom I was speaking to. First impressions are important when caring for patients, talking with families and understanding how staff reacts to me. All these distinguishing characteristics speak dynamically about my abilities, ethics, proficiencies, and how compassionate you are. (Living Values, n.d.).

In Chapter one there were many ways that this reflected on me. Compassion is defined as truly and genuinely caring for someone and showing them kindness. This reflects on me because I think that people show compassion the most when they go out of their way to help someone. The creation stories also have a lot to do with life. The first creation story says that God communicated the truth that all that God creates is good. This means alot to me about God. The second Creation story has to do with a lot about that God shares human qualities. This means to me that God is still a normal person with superhuman qualities.