How Nurses Can Improve Compassionate Care
Compassionate care is an essential part of nursing. It ensures that patients feel respected and well-cared for during their stay in the hospital, and studies have shown that compassionate care can even speed up recovery. However, compassion is often misunderstood in the medical world. Providing genuine compassion requires forward-thinking and careful planning. This article will explore some of the ways nurses can improve compassionate care for their patients.
Further Training
Pursuing specialized credentials and further education is an excellent way for healthcare professionals to improve patient care quality. However, some nurses may be too busy to pursue further training at this time, especially considering the current nursing shortage, which is expected to last through 2030.
One solution is on-the-job training (OTJ) programs in healthcare. OTJ training increases job satisfaction and does not take nurses away from understaffed units. This means the hospital can train its staff quickly without paying salaried employees who are not presently working. There are several training programs designed to improve compassion and patient care, but nurses today should also consider anti-bias training, which can help bring a more compassionate approach to nursing and improve the overall standard of patient care.
Technology
Utilizing newly released automation technology can free up time to spend with patients and improve the overall quality of their care. For example, nurses specializing in psychotherapy can improve patient care quality by embracing technology like therapy notes software. These applications help reduce nurses’ workloads and help them keep track of patient progress. This change in workflow can streamline nurses’ schedules and improve organization at work. Still, it is crucial to ensure that the software is interoperable within a larger EHR environment to share information across multiple technologies and successfully adopt new tech.
Staying Organized
Organization skills are often overlooked by folks looking to improve their compassion. However, it’s hard to embody compassion without caring for one’s responsibilities. Kirsten Drake, DNP, RN, OCN, NEA-BC, believes that organization is a skill that can be polished with careful reflection and consideration. She suggests that nurses list daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities and “categorize critical activities” to gain greater clarity about what they need to do every day. Categorizing activities into critical and non-critical tasks can help nurses focus on the bigger picture and make more time for patients. This is particularly important for nurses climbing the healthcare ladder and being looped into emails around the clock. Drake recommends funneling emails into “action needed, follow-up, or reference” to improve email management and organization.
Self-Care
Nursing is a demanding profession, with high emotional and stress demands that can impact work performance by compromising decision-making abilities or effective communication with other team members. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that anxiety and stress reduce one’s ability to empathize with others. Recognizing the connection between stress and reduced compassion is critical for nurses who want to improve the quality of their patient care.
Nurses can improve the quality of their patient care by seeking help to overcome chronic stress. Even small interventions like talk therapy and prescribed mindfulness can be used to improve self-care and reduce fatigue.
Conclusion
Providing compassionate care is essential for nurses. Finding time to practice compassionate care can be challenging, particularly for nurses overwhelmed at work. However, nurses can improve patient care quality by pursuing specialized credentials and further education, embracing automation technology, seeking on-the-job training, improving their organization skills, and practicing self-care. By implementing these practices, nurses can streamline their workday, free up time for more personalized, compassionate healthcare, and improve the overall standard of patient care.