In education we often use the word critical to mean that we have been able to analyse what we hear and read about. It is important therefore to be critical when thinking about compassion and not to use the term lightly. Compassion is too important to become a tick box exercise and as we can see from the political world, compassion is often absent from policy and practice guidelines. Compassion is critical when we are trying to juggle budgets and resources but like any quality improvement project we eventually become aware that it can cost us more to exclude it from our everyday practice. Whenever we hear of things going wrong in nursing practice most of the time it is down to a lack of communication between staff, patients, carers and managers. If you think of the Mid Staffordshire report and read it critically, you will see written between the lines in the invisible white spaces, that critical compassion was missing from everyday practice.
When we take the time to analyse our compassionate practice in a mindful way (see previous posts) we will be able to make changes to our practice that will demonstrate compassionate care. This is a skill or a habit that we must practice everyday and analyse or question ourselves critically “Did I See that person universally? Did I Hear that person’s diversity ? Did I Support that person’s recovery?