In the medical field, why is compassion important?

Question

Just looking for different opinions and ideas on this topic.

thanks
have fun out there

Answer 1

Hi, I'm an Audiologist.

In health care we sometimes can focus on the ailment or procedure that we forget the person. We aren't working on cars, these are human beings. No one likes to be poked or prodded, especially if they don't understand the procedure. Many medical procedures are very uncomfortable physically and psychologically for the patient, and they feel vulnerable. In addition, there is often fear regarding the reason for the procedure, and worse-case scenarios are circling through their minds. Then there are the times when we do have to convey bad news. It is very hard to tell a new parent that their baby can not hear. It is difficult to tell a patient that their test results could be a sign of a brain tumor.

I will never for the life of me forget the time I performed a test to see if a 2 year-old's brain was responding to sound (which is one of the most basic brainstem functions and is used to determine if the patient is brain dead). It was obvious from how he looked in comparison to the photos the family had posted around the room that this child was being kept alive by the many machines whirring and beeping around him. Apparently the family was having a difficult time letting go and making the decision to pull the plug, so we were called in as a final measure. This poor child did not respond, even when we turned the sound to maximum levels. As we left the room with heavy hearts, the head of the pediatrics department happened to be walking by, and he asked if we got any response. We somberly shook our heads, to which he nonchalantly replied, "Well, dead is dead!" I was so taken aback by how cold and callused that reaction was, and hoped that I would never become that way (or be a patient to a Dr. who is that way).

I always try to treat my patients the way I would want my loved ones to be treated. In my field, I have worked with all types of people, so I have to interact with each one as an individual based on the gender, age, cognitive abilities, and their culture. This is a difficult challenge; but it has allowed me to learn that I can connect with every one on some level -- we all do have more in common than we do that separates us. In taking the time to find a connection with each patient, they feel more comfortable with me; so I am then able to perform my duties more effectively, which also gives them confidence in my professional aptitude. Having compassion elevates us from being a clinician doing a job, to being a professional practicing a vocation.

Answer 2

I go to Health Careers High School and we had a whole chapter on this. Compassion in a medical field is very important. Suppose you were the best friend of a patient who was about die. how would u feel if the health care provider just told you that your friend is about to die adn left you in the hospital to cry. I'm not sure but i dont think you would have liked it. But suppose if they told u and sticked by ur side and tried to make u feel better and nicer. That is why it is important. Health Care providers want their patients to understand what is happening adn to make sure the patient and his love one though that they are loved and are being cared for in the best possible way.

I hope this helps. :)

Answer 3

Because you are dealing with people and their loved ones. I did Nursing for 10 years before I decided to become a stay at home mom. One of the most important things I feel in this field of work is to treat every patient like you would want your family member/ loved one to be treated. It is a very emotionally rewarding career. Good Luck

Answer 4

You need to be able to understand where the patients are coming from and understand why they may be feeling the way they are. They are out of their element being in a hospital or nursing home and can be vunerable in a setting like that.

I worked as a CNA(certified nursing assistant)for many years in a nursing home!

Answer 5

It makes you closer to the patient and makes him/her confide in you more with their symptoms thus helping you reach the perfect diagnosis.

It helps the patient feel better (emotional well being plays out in the physical aspects of health).

comPASSION. Having passion in anything you do makes you do it better.

Hope these helped :-)

Answer 6

Compassion is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce such suffering; to show special kindness to those who suffer. Thus compassion is essentially empathy, though with a more active slant in that the compassionate person will seek to actually aid those they feel compassionate for.

Compassionate acts are generally considered those which take into account the suffering of others and attempt to alleviate that suffering as if it were one's own. In this sense, the various forms of the Golden Rule are clearly based on the concept of compassion.

Compassion differs from other forms of helpful or humane behavior in that its focus is primarily on the alleviation of suffering. Acts of kindness which seek primarily to confer benefit rather than relieve existing suffering are better classified as acts of altruism, although, in this sense, compassion itself can be seen as a subset of altruism, it being defined as the type of behavior which seeks to benefit others by reducing their suffering.

In the words of Dalai Lama: "Compassion makes one see the picture clearly; when emotions overtake us, the lack of seeing clearly clouds our perception of reality and hence the cause of many misunderstandings leading to quarrels (even wars)."[citation needed]

American Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote: “Compassion supplies the complement to loving-kindness. Whereas loving-kindness has the characteristic of wishing for the happiness and welfare of others, compassion has the characteristic of wishing that others be free from suffering, a wish to be extended without limits to all living beings. Like metta, compassion arises by entering into the subjectivity of others, by sharing their interiority in a deep and total way. It springs up by considering that all beings, like ourselves, wish to be free from suffering, yet despite their wishes continue to be harassed by pain, fear, sorrow, and other forms of dukkha.

To increase the breadth and intensity of compassion it is helpful to contemplate the various sufferings to which living beings are susceptible. A useful guideline to this extension is provided by the Buddha’s first noble truth, with its enumeration of the different aspects of dukkha (suffering). One contemplates beings as subject to old age, then as subject to sickness, then to death, then to sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, and so forth.”