C is for Compassion
Compassion, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it”. Or in more simple terms, “it refers to both an understanding of another’s pain and the desire to somehow mitigate that pain”.
Compassion is often an undervalued trait in people as a whole, especially true in the field of healthcare. I’ve had some wonderfully compassionate and caring nurses, and physical rehab specialists of various disciplines, and physician assistants. These people were able to make a very challenging and difficult situation much more tolerable by the seemingly simple act of compassion.
But it really isn’t a simple thing. Some practitioners I’ve encountered, mostly very competent ones, had an apparent lack of ability to show compassion or basic caring for another person. To these few, I was simply a medical challenge placed in front of them upon which to practice their particular healthcare craft.
While these people seem to be the exception to the rule, I find it distressing that anyone in such a caring profession could be without the ability to care about their patient as a human being vs. an illness or disease. These few function as robots who take input in the form of symptoms and spit out a diagnosis in response.
Are we to blame for this, or is an inherent lack of ability to feel for their patients? Is it a result of the demands placed on our healthcare practitioners by an extremely taxed and highly regulated system of medicine? Did they somehow lose their compassion in the bureaucracy of our healthcare system which seems to be run by the insurance companies rather than sound medical judgment? Or have they simply shut off their emotions in an attempt to survive in the sea of healthcare battles they find themselves in on a daily basis?
This article is neither an attack on our healthcare system nor what may or may not be wrong with it. Rather it is simply some observations based on real life experiences that beg for these questions to be answered.
Share your thoughts, with us, below.
comments powered by Disqus