Before we reflect on the virtues of
compassion, let's take a look at the story behind the failure of the priest and the Levite to help.
"As we further study the effects of
compassion on patients and patient care, it is important for the medical community to have validated methods of measurement in what was once thought to be a 'soft' science," said Roberts.
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Compassion in healthcare really speeds up the healing process and here at the Aga Khan University Hospital, we train and teach our Pediatricians, Nurses and Staff on how to deliver compassionate care based on the nine principles of the Charter of
Compassion including: empathy, mindfulness, humility and forgiveness,' says Dr.
Compassion Fatigue,
Compassion Satisfaction, and Burnout
Among these is the quality that we know as "
compassion." Often missing from recorded history,
compassion has played a major role in humanity's ability not only to endure, but to prevail against oppression and tyranny.
Compassion is "experiencing feelings of loving-kindness toward another person's affliction." It's related to, but a little different from empathy, which the same scholar defines as "feeling with someone, that is, sharing the other person's emotion."
SC is a newly emerging positive construct, which has been defined as treating oneself with care and
compassion in the face of difficulties, some personal failures or inadequacies (Brach, 2003; Salzberg, 1997).
These three elements interlock, one influencing the other in a spiral that strengthens self-compassion and the ability to extend
compassion to others.
Compassion for others is a motivator for most that join the nursing profession.
When we are able to quiet the mind before an encounter with another person, we are better able to experience
compassion because we move out of the sympathetic nervous system that engages the fight or flight response.
Inculcation of positive thoughts and
compassion successively helps in lowering negative thoughts and depression.