Compassion in medicine or medicine with compassion?

If compassion is to be encouraged and sustained, then it could perhaps be helpful to initiate courses within undergraduate training, for example as in the course developed by the University of Crete (Lionis, Shea, Markaki 2011), and for ongoing professional development to utilise the concept by way of courses, reflective learning, and learning from ‘what goes right’ in practice as well as ‘what goes wrong’. Although there is much debate as ‘to what extent compassion can be taught and how it can be taught’, there are some positive and promising signals arising from academic and practice settings where the introduction of compassionate courses has received a warm acceptance by medical/nursing students and practising health care professionals. However, intervening at the undergraduate education level may be insufficient to address the issue and specific measures and policies together with ongoing training may be required in order to sustain the concept of compassion in the longer term. Thus, it might be beneficial to look into ways as to how compassion can be implemented and sustained over time, with the involvement of not just frontline staff, but also health care managers and administrators, and policy makers. This might help us to ensure that the original values of those entering the health care profession do not become lost, and that enthusiasm can be renewed, leading to the longer term benefits for all involved in patient care.

Autumn 2015, Vol 2, No. 1, Issue 2