Compassionate care is one of the fundamental and essential aspects of nursing practice. According to British experts, merciful care is a professional standard, a behavior model of competent, qualified nurses (Henderson & Jones, 2017). It is an attentive approach to solving the patient’s problems, the desire to relieve their pain.
One of the most strongly pronounced examples of compassionate care is caring for children with cancer and working with their parents. Palliative care is an advanced and effective method of improving the quality of life of patients and children. Cancer development cannot be prevented, but a competent specialist “alleviates” the symptoms caused by cancer and provides proper psychosocial support. According to the article by Ringnér et al., a nurse provided the necessary intervention, using a wide arsenal of acquired knowledge, skills, and ideas about such a manifestation of care. Combining childcare with individual training of parents brings favorable and positive results in work (Ringnér et al., 2021). In this situation, individual informational meetings and conversations with adults are the main duties of a nurse (Ringnér et al., 2021). A worker easily identified the problem, adopting all the best ways and methods to alleviate the suffering of parents and their children.
Caring for children with cancer is merciful help due to the following reasons. Primarily, experts from Britain note that this “concern” includes strong-willed, affective, altruistic, and moral elements (Bivins et al., 2017). Hence, a nurse providing “compassion” has insight, active imagination, and a selfless response to the needs of others. In the process of work, a medical worker identifies the suffering of others and acts in such a way that the agony and pain can be alleviated (Egan et al., 2017). Even though a person will eventually die from an incurable disease, the manifestation of attention, care, love, and human compassion for the problem will facilitate the “path to another world.” Based on the above example, a specialist relied on certain standards, rules – they penetrated deeply into the essence of problems, took care of children and their families, showed competence and responsiveness (Ringnér et al., 2021). Therefore, this care was compassionate because it showed the most important qualities and elements inherent in such medical practice. A nurse actively provided comprehensive care to patients and their families, relieving pain and other symptoms. In addition, patients’ individual needs were met, and comprehensive assistance was provided in solving social, spiritual, and psychological problems.
This care has positively and favorably influenced the experience of caring for children and their parents. Patients were able, if possible, to lead an active lifestyle until death, accepting the disease as a “natural phenomena.” Moreover, several conversations, interviews, and dialogues between a nurse and parents of children led to a positive outcome – relief of the mental pain (Ringnér et al., 2021). A special support system helped families cope with difficulties during the patient’s illness and after losing a loved one. Thus, initiative, courage, activity, the manifestation of communicative elements in merciful care, and commitment to one’s work are the key to success in this difficult field (Tierney, 2019). Conducting face-to-face conversations and heart-to-heart meetings with adults had the strongest impact on solving the issue within the framework of compassionate care. Consequently, the experience of care influenced the manifestation and implementation of high-quality and effective work of medical personnel. Compassionate care has improved the well-being of children and adults by eliminating, alleviating, and preventing the manifestations of the disease. Although this assistance did not replace the treatment of the disease, it only served as a supplement, providing support and alleviating the suffering of seriously ill people and their loved ones.
References
Bivins, R., Tierney, S., & Seers, K. (2017). Compassionate care: Not easy, not free, not only nurses. BMJ Quality & Safety, 26, pp. 1023-1026. Web.
Egan, H., Mantzios, M., & Jackson, C. (2017). Health practitioners and the directive towards compassionate healthcare in the UK: Exploring the need to educate health practitioners on how to be self-compassionate and mindful alongside mandating compassion towards patients. Health Professions Education, 3(2), pp. 61-63. Web.
Henderson, A., & Jones, J. (2017). Developing and maintaining compassionate care in nursing. Nursing Standard, 32(4), pp. 60-69. Web.
Ringnér, A., Olsson, C., Eriksson, E., From, I., & Björk, M. (2021). A moment just for me–parents’ experiences of an intervention for person-centred information in paediatric oncology. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 51, pp. 1-6. Web.
Tierney, S., Bivins, R., & Seers, K. (2019). Compassion in nursing: Solution or stereotype?. Nursing Inquiry, 26(1), pp. 1-6. Web.