Nursing with kindness and compassion

Although kindness and compassion have long been considered synonymous with nursing, nowadays they are qualities too often notable by their absence.

In recent years, healthcare has received bad press, with many examples of lack of care for patients and their relatives highlighted by the national media. The increased focus on degree-entry nursing has led some to fear a decline in caring nurses. But there is no reason why people who are academically gifted should be uncaring and the real reason for a loss of compassion may be more complex.

It is more likely that the negative changes are a reflection of how we run organisations and what has been stripped out of nursing to promote its status as a profession.