Compassionate practice in a hospital setting. Experiences of patients and health professionals: A narrative inquiry

To explore how compassion is received by patients in a hospital setting and how compassion is expressed by health professionals in a hospital setting.

Compassion is important to health professionals and patients. Perceived deficits in compassion in healthcare have led increasing concerns about the quality of care for patients. To better understand compassionate practice in a hospital setting we used narrative inquiry to explore the expression of compassion by health professionals and the experience of receiving compassion by patients.

Narrative Inquiry. Reported in line with Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ).

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 patients and health professionals in Australia. Data were collected between August 2018 and August 2019. Narrative analysis processes were used to develop a thematic framework.

Compassionate practice is presented as an overarching theme and comprises of three themes: (1) Amalgamation of various knowledges and skills (2) Delivery of meaningful actions which alleviate suffering and (3) Meeting individual needs and prevention of further preventable suffering. The expression of compassion by health professionals involved the fusion of many skills and knowledges. Patients received compassion through the actions of the health professional which alleviated their suffering.

Compassionate practice is both important, and complex. Presence, skilled and purposeful action and the alleviation of suffering are essential to the expression and receipt of compassion in the hospital setting.

Findings from this study contribute to the growing body of literature on compassionate practice in health settings, specifically in how it is expressed and received in a hospital setting. The complexity of compassion is explained for health professionals. Compassion was shown to be embedded in the caring moments between health professionals and patients. This paper explains the different elements that comprise compassion which can guide health professional practice. The importance of seemingly small acts has a big impact on patients, families and health professionals. There is a need for greater stakeholder value and recognition of this aspect of practice.