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Compassion

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True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it   Daniel Goleman First day at school nerves  At the time of writing Google says that ‘compassion’ appeared in 160 news headlines in the last 24 hours. It is a rich and complex idea that is often seen as characteristic of our human best while its absence makes possible our worst. While compassion has long been widely regarded as an essential ingredient of effective care a definitional step is often missing. In 2007 in Nursing Forum Assistant Professor Maria Schantz wrote “the meaning of the concept “compassion” is neither clearly defined in nursing scholarship nor widely promoted in the context of contemporaneous everyday nursing practice” and continued on a sombre note “the term in its moral dimension has, at best, been downgraded as an optional practice in everyday nursing and care and, at worst, dismissed as lofty ideals connected to other disciplines, such as religi

Reflection

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“I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values” Sidney Poitier Whether we realise it or not, the work we decide to do and the way we later feel about it went, is deeply influenced by our values. So I have been struggling to pin down a central question for my PhD. All along I have known I wanted to explore values and that storytelling is both something I love and a medium through which I have witnessed folk share their ideas about what really matters to them. Even that – values and stories - was not enough. Sometimes the hardest thing is to take your own advice but that is what I have done. I have returned to and reflected upon my values and (I think) finally put my finger on something. Yes I want to uncover new knowledge, yes I want to do something that simplifies complex processes and yes I want to undertake something that can bring others and myself enjoyment but even the s