The Art of Compassion: Educating Nurses for the World (Chapter in Awaken the Stars: Reflections on What We Really Teach)

Excerpt: A unique and perhaps subtle difference exists between educating the best nurses in the world and educating the best nurses for the world. There is a distinction between the two that is at the heart of what makes caring for someone in their time of need an incredible vocation. Think upon a time when you experienced the knowledge, skills, and care of a nurse! think each of us can identify or recall nurses who were proficient and effective coordinators of care. They were nurses who were professionals in the world, protecting and promoting health and safety for ind ividuals, families, and populations. You might also have vivid recollections of unforgettable, highly venerated nurses who were someth ing more for you; their presence seemed to make all the difference. There was something about them that activated the transition from good to great. That something, I believe, was compassion made alive by the nurse\u27s ability to engage in meaningful and transformative human connections. In nursing, compassion involves seeing the patients as more than the sum of their diagnosis, vita l signs, and laboratory results. A nurse who personifies compassion has cultivated a deep-rooted concern for the total well-being of others while also striving to alleviate their suffering

Teaching Compassion in Prison: A Key to Learning

In a project with long-term prisoners at HMP Dumfries, Scotland, tutors and students explore the notion and application of compassion, focusing in particular on the ways in which understanding compassion enables learning – not just the learning of academic subjects but also of interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. The project highlights the benefits of teaching a so-called extracurricular subject, at the same time as revealing its centrality to learning in the first place. A lack of adequate teaching time in prison, and the fact that compassion is not considered a core subject in education, are both cited as obstacles in consolidating the work of the project. The benefits of teaching compassion - emotional, intellectual and spiritual - was made clear through written and verbal student feedback. Three short workshops highlighted the enormous potential in developing and establishing compassion as both subject and practice in prison education. It is hoped that practitioners and researchers will support the expansion of this work throughout prisons

A qualitative exploration of responses to self-compassion in a non-clinical sample

Research suggests that being self-compassionate can have myriad benefits, including life satisfaction, health-promoting behaviours and improved mental health. Given the possible advantages of being self-compassionate, it seems critical to explore how to promote this in the general population. This qualitative study aimed to understand responses to the idea of being compassionate to oneself within the general population. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the North East of England between October 2014 and February 2015, they were analysed using thematic analysis. As part of an intervention study, non-clinical volunteers watched a psychoeducation video about the concept of self-compassion and then participated in one of four meditation exercises. Following this, participants were interviewed about their responses to the idea of being self-compassionate. Three themes were identified: Benefits of Self-Compassion; Being Self-Compassionate and Barriers to Self-Compassion. Participants believed that being self-compassionate would be beneficial, for both themselves and the world, but they believed that self-compassion would make them vulnerable and that others would judge them. Thus, participants were afraid to be the first ones to be self-compassionate and stated that, in order for self-compassion to be acceptable, we need to change the perspective of western culture. These findings underscore the importance of understanding society's role in a person's ability to be self-compassionate. In order to reap the benefits of self-compassion, we need to create a culture that accepts and encourages this. As practitioners, we are in a position to lead in self-compassion and to encourage other leaders to promote this as a preventative mental health strategy

Nursing with the Heart of Christ

Within the nursing profession it is necessary for the nurse to learn to have love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity within his/her character. After reviewing numerous peer reviewed journals and personal examples, the following paper reveals how these traits – love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity – are beneficial within the nursing profession. The paper defines the mentioned characteristics, shows how they can be used and implemented within the nursing practice, demonstrates how their implementation leads to greater patient care, and then compares these traits and actions to the character and person of Christ

One in mission - a compassionate church

Historical series, 1. Delivered at the 1st biennial convention, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Ottawa, Jl 8 1987

Veganism as a Virtue: How compassion and fairness show us what is virtuous about veganism

With millions of animals brought into existence and raised for food every year, their negative impact upon the environment and the staggering growth in the number of chronic diseases caused by meat and dairy diets make a global move toward ethical veganism imperative. Typi-cally, utilitarians and deontologists have led this discussion. The purpose of this paper is to pro-pose a virtuous approach to ethical veganism. Virtue ethics can be used to construct a defense of ethical veganism by relying on the virtues of compassion and fairness. Exercising these values in our relations with animals involves acknowledging their moral value, thus seeing that they are not our property or our food. It is important to emphasize that this argument applies only to well-developed societies that need not rely upon animals as sources of food, clothing, and various by-products

Compassionate response: Intersection of religious faith and public policy

Much of social work practice is rooted in compassion. Addressing compassion as a virtue, this article examines the possibilities for compassion to be more explicitly and purposefully built into actions at community and policy levels. We discuss the definition of compassion, examine the religious roots of compassion, describe some ways in which religion and policy intersect, and provide contemporary examples of compassion at the interface of religion and policy. In the discussion, we conclude with further thoughts about how compassion might be elevated in our collective societal actions and address the role of social work in these efforts