Compassion Can Be Taught. This Essay

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For example, a hospice nurse who experiences debilitating loss and grief at every death would be just as hampered in the performance of her duties as a hospice nurse who was unable to empathize with her patients and their families.

Likewise, it is important to realize that some of the technical aspects of nursing education may actually not encourage compassion in nurses. One of a nurse's critical skills is being able to evaluate the severity of a condition or of a patient's presenting symptoms. Therefore, a well-trained nurse might be very confident that a patient's symptoms do not indicate a serious problem, even if the patient is experiencing stress and fear. This may result in behavior towards the patient that the patient perceives as somehow being callous or lacking compassion. What this demonstrates is that empathy is impacted by education. Student values can change as the result of both formal coursework and the overall environment of a nursing program (Johnson, 2008). Moreover, many nursing educators will discuss the risk of burnout or fatigue with their students. They may reveal attitudes towards patients that the students perceive as being uncaring.

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While this probably does not reflect a lack of concern, but, rather, a coping mechanism for professionals called to exercise compassion and care in their interactions with patients but technical precision in their interactions with other health care professionals, it can still send the message that compassion is a weakness.

The problem with the perspective that compassion cannot be taught is that it focuses on inner feeling instead of outward action. Nursing is about providing patient care. "It seems entirely appropriate for a caring-based discipline such as nursing to specify the fundamental elements needed for professional practice" (Davison & Williams, 2009). What this makes clear is that compassion is not about internal feeling. From the perspective of quality of care, it does not matter whether or not a nurse actually feels empathy for her patients. What does matter is how a nurse responds to patient concerns and her overall treatment of those patients. Nurses certainly can be taught how to approach their patients in a compassionate manner. Moreover, they can be taught how to do so in a way that minimizes their risk for burnout and emotional pain......

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