What place does compassion hold in the conduct and production of health services research?

Abstract

Compassion is a word that conveys a sense of action taking place in response to suffering or distress. Over recent years we have seen considerable international debate surrounding compassion within healthcare practice. However, the topic of compassion has been little discussed in terms of the production of health services research. This paper seeks to address this gap by raising compassion within health services research as an area warranting consideration by those planning, managing and conducting such work. It considers compassion towards study participants when recruiting, collecting and analysing data, and also in relation to researchers involved in day to day activities associated with executing a project. Research leaders play a role in ensuring that compassion is not overlooked for those who provide or collect and interpret data. Furthermore, self-compassion could be fostered among researchers to buffer against the everyday activities of their job that have the potential to cause anxiety and distress.

‘Treating this place like home’: An exploration of the notions of home within an adolescent inpatient unit with subsequent implications for staff training

“…The senior staff team need to take steps to address the culture and milieu on the unit to maximise a compassionate model of care, and the role of managers here is crucial (Kraemer, 2015). The notion of compassion can augment networks between colleagues and contribute to more effective and productive employees (Tierney, 2018).…”

Anticipating Doing a Study With Dying Patients: An Autoethnography on Researcher Well-Being

“…As I noted earlier I had studied anthropology before, and as such I was aware that during fieldwork there exists a risk of losing objectivity by becoming too involved or emotionally compromised. The role of researchers' emotional responses and the self-care strategies that, in some circumstances, are appropriate for the researcher and other research support personnel have not received the attention they deserve in qualitative research literature (Rager, 2005;Tierney, 2018). Strategies such as counseling, peer debriefing, and journal writing have been mentioned as means of dealing with the potential for "compassion stress" as experienced by the researcher (Rager, 2005, p. 423).…”

Organizational Culture Artifacts and Compassionate Human Resources Practices in a Healthcare Organization

“…According to Shea (2015), compassion in not reduced to the interpersonal relationship but it encompasses the relational universe of the organization as a whole, and therefore, this author defends the idea of promoting an organizational culture based on compassion that privileges the workers' well-being. While it is true that compassion within organizations has been scantily studied (Kanov et al, 2004) and it is in its infancy (Dutton et al, 2014), for institutions such as hospitals and healthcare organizations it is an issue of special relevance (Lilius et al, 2011;Tierney, 2018). In the health sector it is appropriate to think about the concept of compassion and remember some of its attributes such as delicacy, recognition and support (Jiménez, Triana, & Washburn, 2002).…”

“…need for studies in this area to continuously deepen. According to Tierney (2018), in health services research, compassion have been little discussed.…”