When we talk about compassion in nursing we are not talking about a unique skill or intervention as this implies that compassion is something we do some of the time. Neither are we talking about personal qualities, although there are some that might argue that compassion is innate and cannot be taught. I would argue that it can be taught but because it is something that we do without observation or documentation it will often go unnoticed and unrewarded. I would also argue that compassion is a basic human behaviour that is vital for good quality nursing practice. Although compassion  has also been found in other animals for instance the unconditional love that we get from our pets, we can learn to be compassionate like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car, we need to practice so that it becomes part of our memory set.

Think about the last time you drove down the road in your car and arriving at your destination without ever thinking about how you were going to get there? This is how the behaviour of  compassion is imprinted on our memories as we learn from watching others and developing our knowledge so that we understand what it looks like – then we stop looking for it.

Fact – Compassion in nursing can be taught because it is an observable behaviour that is grounded in our values and beliefs.

As professionals we are constantly trying to sort out the fact from fiction and while listening to patient’s stories  is very useful information, it is not always factual. As compassionate practitioners, this is what we are constantly observing for and from my research over 20 years on service user involvement practices, I have found that there are 3 observable components of compassion – universality, diversity and recovery which will be discussed in much more detail in the next few posts. For further information on compassion read Martha Nussbaum’s 2003 Upheavals of Thought paper here – Upheavals of Thought