Compassion is one of the measures of excellence and a vital characteristic of providing quality nursing care to the patient. It is an inclination evoked by seeing others in agony that prompts taking measures to help them come over it. Compassion is the human and moral piece of care and being humanely receptive to the needs of patients is one of the proficient principles of nursing.
Compassion might directly affect the nature of care given to patients as a patient generally relates the efficacy of care provided to the empathy demonstrated by the caregiver. Giving compassionate nursing care can prompt a feeling of higher fulfillment in patients, more safety, saving time and cost, a feeling of fulfillment and viability in the staff, higher certainty, and better adjustment abilities. Furthermore, current nursing is founded on quantitative proof & specialized abilities, and there is little consideration towards profound quality and compassion. Accordingly, characteristics and practices that may be interpreted by patients as compassion in nursing staff are not acknowledged differently by different caregivers.
Papadopoulos characterized identifying the patients’ need and showing the consideration and comprehension of these requirements as indications of compassion. Van der Cingel believed that compassionate nursing care means paying attention, listening, dealing with patients’ problems, cooperating and accompanying the patient, helping, being available, and understanding. According to the patients’ perspective, a compassionate nurse is highlighted with being thoughtful and precise in managing patients’ issues, being resolved to acknowledge and work to soothe the patients’ aggravation while keeping a respectful relationship with them.
Compassionate nursing care is the fundamental component in giving quality care to the patients, and it perhaps is the most awesome and significant gift that a Nurse can give to his/her patients in the whole healthcare ecosystem. That is the reason nurses consistently attempt and are keen to address the patients’ needs through exhibiting benevolence despite all the limits and obstacles. However, there are times when the patients don’t have a positive experience of nursing care in clinical settings and have encountered a rude, uncompassionate, and threatening relationship with nurses. This is also true when empathy and benevolence are the foundation stones of nursing alongside proficient communication and clinical abilities.
The central issue in imparting humane nursing care is to identify and acknowledge the needs and expectations of patients. Compassionate nursing care is an abstract, intricate, multidimensional, and culture-based idea that is influenced by multiple factors such as qualities, values, cultural norms, and socio-political design of the general public. So the understanding between patient’s expectations and its appropriate translation by the care provider is the focal component in giving high-quality compassionate care for patient satisfaction.
