Compassion at the heart of safer health care

Through our role supporting organisations to run Schwartz Rounds, we at The Point of Care Foundation regularly hear stories from health care staff struggling to deliver compassionate and safe care.

We’ve heard from a surgeon who, having worked a 24 hour shift, shouted in rage at a nurse who had decontaminated a sterile theatre and subsequently apologised. The doctor who struggled to cope with a fatal misdiagnosis he had made. The member of catering staff who refused to believe that a patient really wanted zero salt in her food, until they met her face-to-face and understood the extent of her oesophageal injuries.

The way in which modern health care is delivered – on a large scale by many different people performing different roles, within tight budgets and in the pursuit of mandated targets – makes it easy to lose touch with compassion. ‘It’s not my role’, ‘I don’t have time’, ‘Someone else will do it’, ‘This patient/carer/staff member doesn’t really know what they are talking about’ and so on. These are all thoughts that consciously or unconsciously influence interactions with patients.

We argue in our Staff Care report that supporting staff to deliver compassionate care is not an ‘optional extra’, but is key to delivering efficient and effective health care. And, I would argue, safe health care.

The attributes of a compassionate culture – focused on listening to and supporting the needs of patients and staff – closely align with the attributes of a positive safety culture, where openness and an ability to raise concerns without fear of reprisal are paramount. 

The research shows that there are a number of key ingredients to fostering both a compassionate culture and a safe culture. Leadership. Clear values that are lived and demonstrated. And providing time for people to reflect on the pressure points in a ‘no blame’ or ‘non problem solving’ environment.

In recognition of these similarities we have teamed up with the Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) to promote the delivery of compassionate care through the Frances Jaye Compassionate Care Awards. CHFG is a charity dedicated to promoting understanding of how human factors – including the work environment (such as noise levels, staffing levels, etc) and individual characteristics (stress, tiredness, etc) – can impact on safety and quality.

In December we will be recognising the efforts of both an individual and a team to deliver compassionate care through the award. We know that individuals can and do deliver compassionate care, often despite the pressures they are under. But where we start to see real culture change is where teams are supported to deliver compassionate care at a system level.

We believe fostering compassion and open dialogue in health care settings – between staff groups and with patients – are two sides of the same coin. And will lead to safer environments where patients’ needs are put back at the centre of care delivery.

Jocelyn is Chief Executive of The Point of Care Foundation, www.twitter.com/JocelynCornwell