Caring and Compassionate Experience with A Patient Discussion
Question Description
Compassion is a universal feeling of understanding for others and what they are going through. According to Boyle (2011) Nurses throughout history have extended compassion to their patients, compassion is central to nursing. Without compassion, the element of meaningful human connection in our profession would be lost. Our Week One Lesson speaks of behaviors and values that enhance patient care, without a doubt compassion plays a role in creating the caring culture of nursing (Chamberlain, 2019).
Reflect on a caring and compassionate experience with a patient or family encountered in your practice. How was your compassion demonstrated? What other ways do you wish you would have expressed caring?
When reflecting on caring and compassionate experiences at work, I notice that there is a central theme. For me, this is the giving of time by slowing down with my care and truly listening to understand what the patient or family needs. In my unit I sometimes care for patients at the end of life. These patients and family members are often in need of just being listened to. One patient stands out in my mind, a young woman with vanishing white matter disease, a rare degenerative neurological disease in which there is no cure for. The only way this patient was able to communicate was through blinking her eyes. When caring for her I always made sure to speak to her directly and take the time to connect, make eye contact at the bedside and explain each step of what I was doing for her. I felt such a special connection with this patient. I made sure that I spoke with kindness and respect and worked to maintain her dignity. I was able to demonstrate compassion to her through giving patient centered care, and I was able to show compassion to her family members by listening and communicating with them kindly but honestly. If there was something that I would have done differently for this family, I would have asked them how I could support them in their hospital stay. In our busy unit, time itself is one of the biggest challenges and providing care while not appearing rushed is an art. Still, when providing care for my patients I always aim to slow down and use kindness and to keep the element of compassion in my care.
How does your thinking about compassion expand to include self and colleagues?
My view on compassion in nursing extends from the bedside to my coworkers and self because as nurses we often overlook our own feelings as we process through the stress and loss that we may experience as nurses. It is so important that we keep up with self-care and support our coworkers so we can continue to give compassion to our patients. Boyle (2011), discusses compassion fatigue and the risks that come when we don’t address the difficult nature of being exposed to long term trauma, suffering and pain of our patients on an ongoing basis. Experiencing compassion fatigue can cause deep emotional exhaustion and alter a nurse’s ability to provide compassionate patient care (Boyle, 2011). In our paths as nurses, it is important to address our needs, practice self-care, encourage others to practice self-care and support our coworkers compassionately.
References
Boyle, D. A. (2011). Countering compassion fatigue: A requisite nursing agenda. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(1). Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/chc/detail?vid=1&sid=315f68d4-a44b-4542-8e59-3a2bdad78078%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9Y2hjLWxpdmU%3d#AN=60497484&db=cmh (Links to an external site.)
Chamberlain University College of Nursing. (2019, July). RN Capstone Course NR451-62005. Week One Lesson. Retrieved from https://chamberlain.instructure.com/courses/45610/pages/week-1-lesson-foundational-concepts?module_item_id=5900830

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