Many people may think that compassion is something that we should do everyday in our work as healthcare professionals and to some extent that is true but if we are compassionate because we are told we must be, is this truly compassionate care? In a modern healthcare system there is no time to stand and stare  and the situation can only get more busy as people live longer and grow older. Like any gift we often take a great deal of time to consider what the person would like and spend even more time choosing just the right thing to give as a gift.  In nursing practice compassion might often appear to be a gift that we cannot afford to give for reasons such as lack of time or resources. We may not even have the time to think about how or where we will give the gift of compassion. If we stop in our busy working days and begin to take a mindful approach to what we need to do and how we can do that in the most effective way,  then we might find that all that is needed is the gift of time.

Compassion takes time there is no way around it, so in order to be compassionate we need to be able to find the time to give to people to listen to their needs and differences, and to help them to find ways to help themselves to recover. If we do not find the time then it is very likely that those people will return to our care  on a frequent basis because no one took the time to listen to them the last time they were in need of help.  This is actually a waste of our time in the long run and we may become more frustrated around those people who often return, which in turn can reduce our ability to be compassionate towards them. Giving the gift of compassion from the start may actually save you time in the long run as that person feels listened to and confident in their own ability , with our support, to begin to support themselves. The gift of compassion is therefore never wasted  and the time spent choosing how and when to give it, may save us more than time in the long run.  This might become more obvious  in practice as the Butterfly Effect of compassionate nursing care as suggested by Wiklund Gustin & Wagner (2012), who  using the 10 Caritas Processes of Jean Watson, they found that a mutual relationship develops that truly supports compassionate nursing practice.  In developing our nursing practice we must find the time to stand and stare so that we can reflect upon and develop our compassionate care.