Compassion: A Case Study

Introduction

This assignment will explore how important and realistic it is for health and social care leaders to balance compassion with effective and efficient service delivery. It will define compassion, arguing it is a key enabler to deliver an effective service and look at the negative impact on healthcare when compassion is absent. The leadership challenge this wicked problem (Heifetz, 1994) presents – to achieve a realistic equilibrium between compassion and a range of complex and antagonistic factors such as financial and operational performance pressures will be explored. Finally, it will suggest culture; compassionate leadership and team working can go a long way to address these challenges by helping to develop the necessary

Mastracci et al (2012) and Campling (2013) recognise the grim nature of some of the jobs NHS staff carry out on a daily basis mean they have to develop a thick skin and Pepper et al (2012) note junior doctors feel less empathy as training progress. Mastracci, et al (2012) warn caring for patients without time to refuel emotionally can result in burnout, dissatisfaction and a danger of going through the motions of caring instead of feeling true compassion. It is suggested time to recharge after interactions with patients involving a high expenditure of emotional labour is critical in order to prevent situations where poor care becomes tolerated. Measures to create efficiencies or improve performance such as reducing staff time to debrief or where ambulance crews now wait in laybys for the next call rather than returning to base could result in inability to do this and impact negatively care quality. Pepper et al (2012) found when Schwartz Round model was applied and staff given time to debrief after difficult healthcare episodes and share feelings - job satisfaction, team effectiveness and efficiency

It is proposed effective team working is one way of achieving a balance between compassion and effective delivery. For example, a highly skilled consultant will be part of a team of nurses or more junior staff who can display empathy that might not be apparent in the consultant. West (2011) goes on to find supportive teams with clear roles, have lower levels of stress and when staff work in teams there are fewer errors, staff injuries and patient mortality. The Kings Fund (2017) finds leaders who encourage team working and are compassionate create levels of high staff engagement and the enablers for staff to be more compassionate towards each other. As described above, when command and control type models are replaced with compassionate collaborative leadership and team working encouraged, this results in more motivated staff. Staff who feel safe to grow and develop, decide what works best for them and explore new ways of working within safe boundaries are more likely to generate new and improved ways of