Compassion in Nursing: So, What’s the Big Deal?
Nursing compassion: it’s the thing that makes us different. You will get asked so many times in your career, “so, why did you want to become a nurse”? For many of us, even though we may have had different life events that sparked our interest in nursing, the answer is simple. There is a significance placed upon the importance of compassion in nursing that is unlike any other profession. It’s the thing that makes us different. Compassion in nursing is the pinnacle of everything that nurses do (oh and yes, caring in nursing is an actual course taught in nursing school). The focal point of our profession is caring for patients in a holistic manner that takes into account a person’s mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being. Nurses caring for a patient is not task-completion, it is providing individualized care for another human being based on knowledge, science, medicine, and kindness. It is an honor to be a nurse, but make no mistake, compassion in nursing takes an exceptional human being willing to selflessly serve. That’s what nurses do! So, why is compassion in nursing so important?
There are many reasons why compassion in nursing as a professional and compassionate nursing care are so important to what we do every day. Let’s go through each one:
Patients are Vulnerable
As a nurse, we typically have patients who are either ill, injured, or need assistance with some aspect of their lives. These particular populations are in their most vulnerable moments when we meet them. It is very rare to find someone who does not feel well in a fantastic mood, and it makes sense, right? We have to be the ones to stay calm, cool, and collected in the nursing relationship to put our patients at ease. We have to provide cares and treatments that put patients in uncomfortable positions that they may not have every had to be in (could be getting a vaccine, could be getting an enema), and it is our job to create a trusting environment through compassionate nursing care. We have little kids who are scared, we have older persons who are fragile, and we have everyone in between. In all instances, we must lead with kindness and provide caring in nursing to ensure comfort, and honestly, it is just doing the right thing.
Patient’s Outcomes Improve
It can be described this way: as human beings, it is our innate instinct to withdrawal when people treat us negatively and our instinct to open up after we feel comfortable. In nursing, it is vital that we create an actual relationship with our patients in order to improve their care and their outcomes. The importance of caring in nursing comes down to us not being able to do our job in the best interest of the patient if we cannot create a repertoire with them and their family. Patient’s need to trust nurses, listen to nurses, provide feedback to their nurses, and respect their nurses. Compassionate nursing care has proven to improve patient outcomes by increasing patient education retention, pharmacological adherence, and treatment attention and understanding.
Family Members Matter
Kindness and the importance of compassion in nursing extend from caring for patients to caring for families, too. There will be moments in your nursing career where there may not be anything else you can do for the patient. It may be that they are in a medically induced coma, passing away, or simply awaiting test results. In that exact same moment, you may have family members who are upset. It is not your job to play therapist, but part of being a compassionate nurse is recognizing these moments and offering your assistance. It might be as simple as getting someone a blanket or a cup of water, but it could make a world of difference for someone else which is what caring in nursing is all about. Patients are people, with family and friends, and we cannot be nurses who pretend like they are just “work”. Everyone that we come in contact with matters, and we have to show his or her family that we recognize the severity of having a loved one in the hospital. We have to be kind enough and caring enough with our patients to do the right thing when it comes to their families as well.
You Have Lives in Your Hands
This one is very important when it comes to compassion in nursing because it humbles each and every one of us. We truly have people’s lives in our hands. We cannot be selfish in our decision-making, we cannot operate with prejudice or discrimination, and we have to put others before ourselves in the majority of situations to ensure patient safety. It is a very selfless profession. Caring in nursing oftentimes can mean as little as skipping a lunch break to finish a treatment or as much as knowing a person will die without a blood transfusion but respecting their personal beliefs enough to honor their wishes. It is a tricky game that we play when dealing with other people’s lives in nursing, but as long as we lead with compassionate nursing care we will be just fine.
Younger Nurses are Watching You
This one is really important. You will always have a younger or less experienced nurse watching you. Always. Whether it be a nursing student, new nurse, or nurse of fifteen years on a new unit, there will always be someone less experienced than you watching how seriously you take compassion in nursing. We are currently experiencing a very serious shortage in nursing, and it is our duty to be kind to one another. It is really unfortunate when someone decides to leave nursing or experiences burnout from being treated poorly by other nurses. Compassion in nursing and compassionate nursing care does not simply apply to care for patients. We have to be compassionate towards one another. We have to help one another, we have to listen to one another, and we have to work towards understanding one another. Nurse to nurse compassion is not only essential for safe and effective patient care, but it is also vital to the success and growth of our profession.
Caring in nursing and the importance of compassion in nursing cannot be stressed enough. It is what makes us different. It is what makes us the most trusted profession in the world. Join us, and travel with our compassionate, intelligent, and safe healthcare professionals at Wanderly.