Compassion: An Integral Piece of Nursing

The feeling we have when we can share suffering with another (or many) human beings. This is a gift of being human, this is an essential part of being a nurse. As we fumble together to find the best way that we can share this suffering, we grow as human beings, we grow as professional nurses. How can we conceptualize compassion in such a way that embraces it’s importance in nursing, and, in health care? I think that an unfortunate result of an increasing push to be more evidence based there is a push for nursing to be more technical, more empirically based, and less focused on the fluffy stuff. But, isn’t what some consider the fluffy stuff the foundation of nursing care? Is nursing about curing an illness, or is it about helping people and communities organize the conditions to maximize health? And how do we do this if the focus is the micro and the individual rather than the macro and the collective? And, how do the human and non-human co-exist?

Discussion Questions:

1) What does the word compassion mean to you?
2) What helps you be compassionate in your nursing practice?
3) What are some barriers that get in the way of being compassionate?
4) Wha are the structural barriers that get in the way? Are there ways to overcome them? How?


Peace,

Michelle D.