Empathy and compassion are two things that are very important to the care and healing of patients in my opinion. Some people think they are the same thing, but that is not true. Empathy is the ability of a nurse to not only understand but share the feelings of others. Compassion is the concern for feelings of others, but the nurse does not share the feelings. As a nurse, you should use both empathy and compassion when caring for your patients.
In Watson’s Carative Factors, she highlights the use of empathy and compassion in patient care by describing it as “Love/Heart-Centered Caring practice” (Cara 2003). Her ten-points reference practicing loving and kindness, being present, developing a trusting relationship with the patient, engaging in teach/learning, and more (Cara 2003). I believe all that factors into compassionate and empathetic care, because a patient who does not think their nurse cares is not going to want to participate in their recovery. They will think that if the nurse doesn’t care, why should they. The one point from her list of ten that stood out most was “being present to, and supportive of the expression of positive and negative feelings” (Cara 2003). The way I look at patient-centered care, I think a nurse should acknowledge both the good and the bad when caring for a patient. If nobody ever talks about the bad feelings a person may have, they are going to worsen over time. That will not assist in the healing process because the patient may not feel like getting better if they are filled with negative thoughts.
Demonstrating compassion and empathy when caring for a patient helps not only the patient heal, but also the family. When a patient’s family trusts and feels connected with the person caring for their family member, they will feel better about leaving the hospital to go and care for themselves. Also, a patient who trusts the staff caring for them is not going to be constantly worried about what is happening next or who is coming in to treat them. If a nurse follows Watson’s 10 Carative Factors, a patient should never feel uncared or that they do not know what is happening with their care. This will help them heal faster and assist in their own care because they will be educated in a meaningful way on their care.
I was fortunate enough to participate in compassionate and empathetic care this past semester in clinical with a patient that really just needed a friend. Upon arrival to the hospital the nurses were not showing compassion and kept referring to him as a nuisance and saying that he was very needy. In a field where patients are supposed to be the priority, I did not expect to see compassion not being used. The patient frequently rang his call bell and would ask simple questions such as the time or when the nurse was coming to see him, and I could tell he was just very lonely. Due to COVID restrictions it was difficult for his family to come and visit him, and to make matters worse he did not even have a roommate to talk to. I took this as my opportunity to just sit and talk with him for as long as I could before another task came up for me to do. I asked him questions about his family and showed genuine interest in how he was feeling. I could tell that he appreciated me taking the time to just sit with him, and the nurses appreciated it too. One of the CNAs said it was the longest he had ever gone without ringing his call bell. In this moment I took on the role of a friend for this patient. I was still a nursing student and I still assisted him with putting on his socks and such, but for this minute I was mostly there to listen. Throughout the day, I would come and go from his room, but each time I returned I could tell his eyes lit up. I was there to not only support the positive things he was going through, but also the negatives.
A little later in the day, I had the opportunity to go the physical therapy with the same client from earlier in the day and again we shared many positives but also some negatives. At this point in time, he was strictly wheelchair bound due to his condition so physical therapy was something that posed many challenges for him. When he began to struggle to stay standing or couldn’t quite move an item from one side of the table to the other (two tasks from his therapy), instead of letting him get upset or mad, I encourage him to keep trying. I stayed present during his therapy and engaged in teaching him ways that might make it easier for him to function again. His injuries were requiring him to relearn tasks he had been doing since he was a child, so it was important to use positive encouragement to motivate him to continue learning. Because of the compassion that the physical therapist and I showed, he gained trust in us and knew we were there to help him.
The one thing I think I could have done better in this situation was recognize the lack of compassionate care sooner so I could show compassion and empathy to him myself. I was unsure of what to do, but when my clinical instructor advised me that he could benefit from someone simply sitting and conversing with him, I knew that was something I could do. In the weeks following this event I continued to check in on the patient when I returned to the hospital and I could tell he was improving. He was more receptive to teaching each week that I went to talk with him and also did not ring his call bell as often as he was more able to do things for himself. From this experience I saw firsthand the importance of compassionate care in patient healing. If no one took the initiative to sit and talk with him and get him to trust the care he was receiving, he would not have shown nearly as much progress as he has. I will apply compassionate and empathy in my clinical care moving forward, because it opens patients up to connectedness, creates opportunity for reflection, supports a patient’s sense of hope, encourages patients to believe in themselves, and allows patients a safe place to express how they are feeling (Watson 2008). No matter who the patient is that I am caring for my first priority will always be developing a helping-trusting relationship with the patient. From there, it will allow for a space that is safe to share both positive and negative feelings and thoughts. A patient who trusts their caregiver will be opened to learning new skills and will want to improve their condition.
Overall, I want my patients to feel safe asking me anything and trust that I am giving them the best care possible. I never want a patient to think I do not care about them or that they are not as important as every other patient I am caring for. I am willing to sit with a patient and just talk if that is what it takes to make them feel better, because as a nurse my goal is for all my patients to get better.
Cara, C. (2003). A Pragmatic View of Jean Watson’s Caring Theory, www.humancaring.org (under “continuing education”)
Watson, J. (2008). Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring (rev. ed.), Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
