Stories from 'Friends' of the Centre for Compassion in Healthcare
- New Zealand and international perspectives
This section connects you with the remarkable international dialogue that has been inspired by the idea of creating a Centre of Compassion in Healthcare.
If you have not already done so, please join our on-line network as a "Friend" of the Centre for Compassion in Healthcare - you can register on the right hand side of this page.
Emerging themes for the on-line Forum
We received an avalanche of emails on a range of themes around caring and compassion, many of which expressed profound thoughts, personal experiences and insightful observations. Thank you. Below are some of the key themes which emerged your emails:
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Patient safety issues
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Hospitals, healthcare, profits & people
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Healing the healers
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Compassion in the workplace.
Please continue to share with us your gems in our effort to move the ‘compassionate’ agenda forward. Click here for an overview of Forum themes or go to Forum directly to continue the discussion on any of the topics listed. Please feel free to create a new topic on the Forum.
Stories from our Friends
Two of our international correspondents share very personal stories on the theme of compassion in healthcare. Both have been spurred to action by their own experience of suffering and loss.
The first is a doctor in the USA who suffered serious illness and progressive disability. Her experience has led her to question what it means to be a doctor and how she might help fellow professionals find deeper meaning in their work.
The second story is told by a lay person, a mother who lost a baby son to medical error. Her's is a long journey to find peace and to discover a compassionate way to resolve deep conflict between patients and doctors when unintended harm results from care.
Doctors: Just arrogant, or is there more to it?
In June, Marsha Snyder an American psychiatrist joined our network. As an added angle to psychiatry Marsha also works with other doctors to “reconnect them with that inner passion to serve others, increase self-knowledge, and develop a resilient lifestyle.” The nub of her initial correspondence referred to the medical training in USA which tended to detach students from their initial compassion and desire to serve.
Our web editor wrote "Intrigued but not surprised by what Marsha had to say I wrote a rejoinder with the purpose of prompting Marsha to give us further insight to what I, a non-medical person sometimes perceive as arrogance on the part of doctors, rightly or wrongly. There are many facets to this debate and each of us have opinions on this topic as we have all been at the cold end of a stethoscope sometime in our life." (Full text can be read here)
The courage to find peace: A mother's story
Mary Ellen Mannix is one of our international correspondents writing from Pennsylvania, USA. Her first contribution for us starts with a quote on peace: Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. Robert Fulghum
Our editor wrote, "Although this is my first ‘encounter’ with Mary Ellen I realised that for her, a mother who lost a newborn child James through a series of preventable medical errors, finding peace has been a way of coming to terms with this great loss. This is her story." (Full text can be read here)
Editor: We welcome your views and experiences on these topics and others. Please go to 'Forum' to share your views and experiences. You may need to register as a "Friend" on our website if you haven't already done so.
Good reading - a selection of great papers
Life & Death in the Emergency Department: Measuring the immeasurable 'The human aspect of medical care that statistics ignore'. There are not many articles that bring a lump to my throat but this is one that did just that. “Harry the Hobo” was a regular at Alfred Hospital in Victoria whom the authors described as one who reeked of stale beer and had stale food splattered down the front of his shirt. O’Reilly, Mori and Cameron write with such candour, humour and colour on a serious subject, that of the human(e) touch in a busy hospital emergency department. Rest of article here.
The Art of Great Care: A collection from the New Zealand Health and Disability Commission of short stories of people who received outstanding care from their health providers in New Zealand. Click GreatCare. (Warning: This is a large pdf file of about 10MB)
Can compassion survive the 21st century? (here)
Compassion and Caring in Nursing - Summary and commentary of an editorial in the Journal of Professional Nursing. (Click Caring for summary)
Summary - The Doctor Who Cried: A Qualitative Study About the Doctor’s Vulnerability. It is not often we come across literature especially journal articles with a title The Doctor Who Cried: … After all as the authors say in their introduction “the dominant lesson from medical school: doctors are omnipotent, detached, and impersonal.” The contradiction they add is yet, as general practitioners medical work is unavoidably laden with emotion and enhanced by personal awareness. (Click Doctor)
An African Odyssey At age 14 Phoebe Williams was struck with meningitis. Now in her mid-late 20s she is on route to being a medical doctor after working in the ‘buzz’ of financial markets for a bank and not before overcoming several failed attempts at medical school entrance exams, and a life changing trip to Africa. Read about how one person with ideals of helping others put it into action here.
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