Supporting Compassionate Healthcare Practice

The pursuit of excellent compassionate care should be at the heart of all practice. However, it can be challenging for practitioners to deliver this day after day in a context of tight budgets and targets, which can erode the passion with which they entered their professions. Supporting Compassionate Healthcare Practice encourages healthcare professionals to look after themselves in order to maintain and develop their compassionate practice. This book considers how stress management, resilience, wellbeing and positivity can help all health professionals remain close to the values, attitudes and attributes that brought them into the caring professions. It presents and critiques the evidence base for these key concepts, bringing them to life with numerous case studies and examples, and develops a framework - RESPECT - for practice. This innovative volume is essential reading for all healthcare students, academics and professionals interested in improving both the quality of care and the wellbeing of patients and practitioners alike.

Despite the scope and sophistication of contemporary health care, there is increasing international concern about the perceived lack of compassion in its delivery. Citing evidence that when the basic needs of patients are attended to with kindness and understanding, recovery often takes place at a faster level, patients cope more effectively with the self-management of chronic disorders and can more easily overcome anxiety associated with various disorders, this book looks at how good care can be put back into the process of caring. Beginning with an introduction to the historical values associated with the concept of compassion, the text goes on to provide a bio-psycho-social theoretical framework within which the concept might be further explained. The third part presents thought-provoking case studies and explores the implementation and impact of compassion in a range of healthcare settings. The fourth part investigates the role that organizations and their structures can play in promoting or hindering the provision of compassion. The book concludes by discussing how compassion may be taught and evaluated, and suggesting ways for increasing the attention paid to compassion in health care. Developing a multi-disciplinary theory of compassionate care, and underpinned by empirical examples of good practice, this volume is a valuable resource for all those interesting in understanding and supporting compassion in health care, including advanced students, academics and practitioners within medicine, nursing, psychology, allied health, sociology and philosophy.

Written by a leading healthcare academic and an accredited international business coach, this book takes a new approach to one of the most crucial issues in healthcare – how to care for patients appreciatively, responsively and compassionately. In the light of the findings of the Francis Report (2013), and at a time when healthcare services are under enormous pressure, there is a clear and urgent need for such a book. Despite the challenges of ill health, the authors demonstrate that the opportunity is there for any healthcare practitioner to draw out what the patient needs and desires, in line with the patient’s own values, purposes and beliefs. This approach seeks to alleviate suffering and allows the patient to be more empowered and motivated to change, discovering choice and possibility in times of adversity. In this way, the practitioner can help the patient increase their own resilience and resourcefulness. At the same time, the practitioner discovers their own ability to self-care and self-manage. Aimed at healthcare students and practitioners at all levels, Appreciative Healthcare Practice will provide a valuable and supportive learning resource for a wide range of individuals involved in caring. Contents include: Introduction Carers’ stories Compassionate and dignified care Professionalism – on becoming a professional Applying appreciative inquiry in practice and education Creativity and care Applying the three-eye model to healthcare Mindful healthcare practice The appreciative care worker and coach

A Guide to Compassionate Healthcare looks at how to maintain wellbeing in today’s challenging healthcare environments, enabling practitioners to make a positive difference to the care environment whilst providing compassionate care to patients. This practical guide focuses on strategies to maintain health and wellbeing as health care practitioners, in relation to stress management, resilience and positivity. Health and social care practitioners have been challenged over and above anything they have faced before due to the Covid pandemic. These situations have caused extreme trauma and stress to patients, their loved ones and those who have been struggling to care for them. The book highlights why resilience and good stress management are crucial, and how they can be achieved through a focus on wellbeing and positivity, referring to her RESPECT toolkit: Resilience, Emotional intelligence, Stress management, Positivity, Energy and motivation, Challenge and Team leadership. This is essential reading for all those working in healthcare today who are passionate about compassionate care and want to ensure that they remain positive and well, particularly newly qualified staff.

'Compassion, in its many manifestations, is the key to rediscovering what lies at the heart of nursing practice all over the world. It is absolutely essential that nurses start to revisit compassion as a central focus for nursing practice...' This user-friendly book adopts a patient-centred approach to care. The challenging theories are grounded in practical applications, encouraging readers to recognise opportunities for change in their daily practice. The book focuses on six key concepts central to compassionate care: A*

A guide to compassionate healthcare looks at how you can maintain your own wellbeing in today's challenging healthcare environments, making a positive difference to your workplace and providing compassionate care to patients without fear of burnout. Using their newly developed RESPECT toolkit, the authors introduce a range of strategies to incorporate into your daily life. With a chapter focusing on each element of the model - Resilience, Emotional intelligence, Stress management, Positivity, Energy and motivation, Challenge and Team leadership - the book includes overviews of the relevant evidence, exercises, case studies and practice recommendations.

New technologies are transforming healthcare work and changing how patients interact with healthcare providers. As artificial intelligence systems, robotics, and data analytics become more sophisticated, some clinical tasks will become obsolete and others will be reconfigured. While it is not possible to predict these developments precisely, it is important to understand their inevitability and to prepare for the changes that lie ahead. Without Compassion, There Is No Healthcare argues that compassion must be upheld as the bedrock and guiding purpose of healthcare work. Emerging technologies have the potential to subvert this purpose but also to enable and expand it, creating new conduits for compassionate care. Cultivating these benefits and guarding against potential threats will require vigilance and determination from healthcare providers, educators, leaders, patients, and advocates. The contributors to this book show the way forward, bringing a diverse range of expertise to confront these challenges. Avoiding platitudes and simple dichotomies, they examine what compassion in healthcare means and how it can be practised, now and in the uncertain future. Without Compassion, There Is No Healthcare is a call to action. Drawing together a decade of evidence and insight generated by a community of leading scholars and practitioners committed to promoting compassionate care, it offers steady principles and practices to steer the way through times of technological change.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life. More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.