In the recent Nursing Times article, Dr Jane Collins, chief executive of terminal illness support charity Marie Curie, makes an extremely valid observation in that if you do not give the carer the opportunity to employ their compassion it cannot come to the fore. Simply put, give people the opportunity to use their inbuilt skills and they will, don’t and they won’t.
Dr Collins does say that someone’s compassion can also be ‘destroyed’, we would disagree with that, but it can be pushed so far to the back because of workload, targets, etc that it appears to be missing. Employers need to recognise that if they are employing the right people for the role, they must be treated in a way that complements their unique skills. Truly empathetic people cannot do it with a meter running. It just doesn’t work that way.
Nursing Times
