The Importance of Compassion in Nursing

clendar January 12, 2021

clendar 11 minutes

Robert Huges

10740 Users

A nurse’s compassion is considered an extremely valuable feature of supervision because it supplies patients with proper emotional support, reducing misery and sadness and reinforcing the patient’s will to live more.

Compassion is important in nursing because it aids in making patients feel better about themselves and provides them with the guarantee that everything will be better in no time! If you are compassionate in nursing, you will have the ability to realise that the hospital management will do everything to make their condition finer. In easy words, patients who are taken care of with appropriate compassion are more likely to feel stronger swiftly because they will have fewer reasons to worry. If you are interested in knowing more about the importance of compassion in nursing, stay with me throughout the blog!

Why is having compassion important?

Remember that being a nurse is not only about being physically there for patients.

If you are a nurse, you are also expected to be emotionally supporting the patient to feel better. It would be best if you favoured them with your caring behaviour in their bad times.
As a nurse, you should communicate to your patient with compassion and due respect to realise their worth and unique characteristics. In that case, you will encourage the patients to be stronger.
Compassion in nursing is so much needed that it is now one of the topmost healthcare service requirements.
You also need to put yourself in a patient’s shoes to understand what they are going through. Afterwards, it would be best to let them hold on to their dignity, self-determination and persona throughout the procedure.

The points mentioned above are a few of many reasons why compassion is considered an essential skill in the nursing field and how you can boldly show compassion to your patients. You are most likely to see compassion is frequently used as a similar feature to other conceptions such as empathy, sympathy, and tenderness because yes, it is that very important!

Compassion and Peace of Mind

Patients who receive compassion from the nurses who look after utmost care are more expected to have a pleasant feeling in their illness, pain, and mental stress. Even if a patient is worried about undergoing surgery, getting better from a severe injury or even fighting a dangerous disease, compassion can make the pain more endurable and relax worried patients’ thoughts. Compassion provides patients with support and confidence when they require it most.

Privacy and Dignity

Nurses who provide compassion toward their patients also let them get a sense of dignity when their privacy is restricted. For instance, if a nurse knocks before entering the room, this will make the patient realise that his privacy is important, even in a hospital environment. If you know your patient’s anxiety and uneasiness during particular medical tests, you will, of course, show concern for the patient’s dignity.

Respect

Adequate compassion makes a patient’s worries less as it helps them to feel respected during a time of unreliability. Nurses who take the time to explain all the methods and medical examinations and pay attention to patients’ distress lend a hand to relax their minds and make them feel important about themselves. Being a nurse, if you show your patient that you can understand their pain, that reduces the worry of being hospitalised. Respecting patients is more like showing a form of compassion that lets patients’ minds be at ease and aim at getting better instead of panicking about their health.

Effects of Compassion on the Nurse

Compassionate nursing care not only benefits the patients but also has a positive impact on the nurses who acquire this important characteristic. Nurses who feel a sense of worry for their patients’ well-being usually love their responsibilities more than those who focus less on the emotional side of the occupation. Nurses who are passionate and know more of the patients’ pain and anxiety have to feel more connected to their profession. The capability to feel about the patients in-depth raises sympathetic feelings. It allows nurses who have these criteria in practice to maintain their profession in this manner, where it provides them self-satisfaction for the emotional support they provide.

The Importance of Compassion in Nursing

Performing compassionate care aids you to give out the best possible treatment and polishes up patient results.

1. It Addresses Loneliness and Isolation

Being hospitalised can be an isolated experience. Patients come out of their homes, comfort zones, and a new environment, usually away from their families. They may be in a room all alone and might feel less interested in talking or walking. During that time, their only social interactions are to take place with you, the nurse, and other healthcare providers like doctors.

Performing compassionate care while communicating with your patients can decrease their state of loneliness and sadness. To start a conversation, you can ask them their favourite hobby or maybe talk about their favourite movie to make them feel lighter. You are in charge of providing a connection in a time when your patients enormously need it.

2. It Eases Anxiety

Besides isolation and depression, patients can probably encounter anxiety, especially if they are new to a hospital setting. Keep in mind that they are not only new to the environment with no near ones nearby, but they are also here with a bad health condition. Therefore, it’s obvious their state of mind won’t be pleasing. They may not be fully aware of what’s happening to them, the duration of their stay at the hospital, or what their future is holding for them.

In that situation, you should go for that extra mile to be compassionate to help them reduce their anxiety and be someone they can talk to and share their feelings. You are in charge of making them feel comfortable in an endangered condition. If you succeed in making them feel relaxed, there are high chances that the patient will be at comfort and have hope towards a swift recovery.

3. It Makes You a Better Advocate

As a nurse, a part of your role is always there for your patients. Support them in every way possible. To carry this out to become a better advocate, you have to understand the patient completely— for example; you have to know all their needs and requirements, both physical and emotional. Being compassionate will allow you to have a better insight into their overall condition, granting you to supply the best quality care and advocate for your patients in conversations with family members and other professionals.

4. It Improves Communication Between Patient and Nurse

Through providing compassion in your connections, you’ll also be forming faith between yourself and your patients. They’ll feel easier to communicate with you about their health and needs, assisting you to understand them better. In return, you’ll get to know them more and recognize all their concerns that even may be implied. You can also maintain a good relationship between you and your patients to make them feel safe and protected.

5. It Improves Overall Patient Well-Being

Of course, patients want nurses to manage them with love, affection, and respect, especially during risky and tough times. Learning how to provide compassion will improve your patients’ overall well-being and happiness, which can improve their health results and make everyone’s experience more pleasing.

How to Practice Compassion in Nursing

While nurses attempt their best to show compassion to all patients, particular limitations in the healthcare system can make this more daring in application.

As a nurse, you are most likely to experience some barriers, like a lack of time, support, and staff, paperwork and productivity requirements, and an unpleasant workplace culture. All of the issues mentioned above can affect a nurse’s capability to show compassion.
In spite of these hurdles, two practices have been found to support compassionate care. The first one is forming strong team connections and the second way is looking for routes in which your co nurses will learn that being compassionate is an easy task to carry.

Here are some tangible ways you can practice compassion with your patients:

Keep yourself in your patient situation, and feel exactly how they feel. It is a common scenario that patients often feel helpless in an endangered environment. They may be feeling shy to admit they don’t understand something about medicines or if they’re having problems with something. Sit and think of how you’d feel in your patients’ shoes, involving all the challenges they might face. That thought will allow you to understand their mind better and be aware of how they would feel better if treated. You may also ask them what you can do to make them feel more comfortable, which will make them feel easy.
Don’t jump into making good relationships. Even if you know that time is short, keep in mind that small gestures can take a long time from a good relationship. You may use a positive tone of voice and greet your patient with a smile. Let them know that you’re always available at their service and tell them how to reach you anytime they need. When you go to their room to check up on them, ask them how they’re doing, start a conversation, and genuinely listen to them.
Show your respect for the patient. You better knock before getting inside the room, to show respect and to give them their privacy. Try your best to explain anything they want to know like medical tests and procedures. Strengthen your patients understand and be a big part of their care. Try to be a patient listener and follow up on their concerns.
If needed, hold a patient’s hand and make them realise that they have someone for them in the hospital. Make them a little worried by saying that you are always ready to listen to their problems. It can give them a human connection in a time where it’s very much needed.

Conclusion

Steps that you have to take to show compassionate care in your nursing don’t have to be huge. They can be simple and small gestures you embrace into your routine and your everyday practice. The contribution may be small to make the patient feel better, but it can sometimes be one of the most memorable moments that a patient will receive at that particular time.

Keep in mind that compassion can make all the huge differences for someone’s well-being and recovery, so by now, you must have a vast idea about the importance of compassion in nursing. No matter what you do, if you provide compassion to your patient as a nurse, that will be one of the kindest services a patient will receive. You can make them feel better, so why shouldn’t you utilise it? Be compassionate to your patients as a nurse, because that is a highly gratifying swerve to provide for the nurse.