Lilius, J. M., Worline, M. C., Dutton, J. E., Kanov, J., Frost, P. J., & Maitlis, S. (2003). What good is compassion at work? National Academy of Management. Work continues to disseminate the approach to compassionate leadership presented in the report. This includes online training programmes and bespoke training programmes at a local level. Steinberg’s uplifting vision will resonate with social justice reformers and any readers interested in the ongoing fight for justice in a broken system.Powerfully insightful reading.” Other recommendations include suggestions to improve workplace culture, team-working, support for new staff, supervision and learning opportunities.

This involved a detailed examination of available evidence, analysis of key data, and interviews with nursing and midwifery staff at all levels across the NHS and social care across the UK. The resulting report, The Courage of Compassion: Supporting Nurses and Midwives to Deliver High-quality Care was published in September 2020. People who work in supportive teams with clear goals and good team leadership, have dramatically lower levels of stress ( West et al 2015). Compassionate leadership increases staff engagement and satisfaction, resulting in better outcomes for organisations including improved financial performance ( Dawson and West 2018). Compassion“Is compassion a moral force? The answer, according to many spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama, is a resounding yes. The experience of compassion, they assert, has a radiating effect, extending kindness and forgiveness toward others, even those who have intentionally transgressed.” (DeSteno, & Valdesolo, 2012) Because she is now on her own, Susan did not want to risk moving to her new location the two steers that were in her care—Norman and Ashli—the latter named after an activist friend who was killed in a car accident around the time Susan got him. “One of them almost hurt me once while playing. They're big with big heads. He got me in a corner and kept bashing me with his head. Finally, I was able to crawl over the fence and get away from him,” she recalls. When we commissioned the report, we were conscious of two things. First, that there had already been a number of studies on this issue; and secondly, that COVID-19 was having a profound impact, exacerbating the issue of a workforce already experiencing stress, burn out and mental ill health.Nurture and sustain just, fair and psychologically safe cultures and ensure equity, proactive and positive approaches to diversity and universal inclusion. Key recommendation 3: Work conditions and working schedules Compassion “In the classical teachings of the Buddhist tradition compassion is defined as the heart that trembles in the face of suffering. At times, compassion is translated as the heart that can tremble in the face of suffering. It is aspired to as the noblest quality of the human heart, the motivation underlying all meditative paths of healing and liberation. Compassion is a multi-dimensional process in which three elements of compassion form a tri-partite concept: noticing another person’s suffering,empathically feeling that person’s pain, and acting in a manner intended to ease the suffering (Dutton et al., 2006; Kanov et al., 2004; Miller, 2007). All of these elements are necessary, in this view, to understand compassion. Importantly, compassion goes beyond felt empathy to entail action, which is regarded as a compassionate response regardless of whether or not it successfully alleviates suffering (Kanov et al., 2004; Reich, 1989; Soygal Rinpoche, 1992).” (Lilius, Worline, Maitlis, Kanov, Dutton, & Frost, 2008). Given the increasing complexity of delivering health and care, chronic work overload and additional pressures created by the Covid pandemic in health and care, it is vital for leaders to place a high priority on supporting the health and wellbeing of people at work.

Susan’s dedication to her animals is apparent. She doesn’t want to take volunteers and funds away from sanctuaries that need help when she can manage. Her life revolves around the animals in her care because there is no one available to step in if she ever wanted to take a vacation. Reflecting on the stress that comes with this responsibility she says, “It's like Groundhog Day. Every day it's the same thing. All the worry is on me, and I'm a worrywart anyway. I have to force myself to not think of all the worst-case scenarios that can happen. And when I don’t speak to a human for a month, it gets to be a little much.” The report makes for compelling reading and makes some important recommendations about the urgent transformational change that is needed to enable nurses and midwives to thrive in their workplaces. Compassion is a relational process that involves noticing another person’s pain, experiencing an emotional reaction to his or her pain, and acting in some way to help ease or alleviate the pain” (Kanov, Maitlis, Worline, Dutton, Frost & Lilius, 2004).

Overview

Susan gets emotional as she shares this story: “That was really hard because she was healthy otherwise. She's one that gets to me. She was so sweet. You love them all, but there are always a couple that pull your heartstrings. When I think about them individually, there is something very special about every single one of them. But when I'm thinking about the whole group, Trixie, Edgar and Valentine—my first potbellied pig—are the ones that touched me the most.” Trixie relaxing in the sun's rays.

And I think this book should be a must read to all journalism students, to try to see things from multiple perspectives and sides. Ensure health and care environments have compassionate leadership and nurturing cultures that enable both care and staff support to be high-quality, continually improving and compassionate. Key recommendation 6: Workload The RCN Foundation have once again linked up with the King's Fund to launch an exciting new project Follow your (Com)Passion.The COVID-19 pandemic has put the UK health and care workforce under unprecedented pressure. The workforce had been struggling to cope even before the pandemic took hold. Staff stress, absenteeism, turnover and intentions to quit had reached alarmingly high levels in 2019, with large numbers of nurse and midwife vacancies across the health and care system. Develop and support effective multidisciplinary teamworking for all nursing and midwifery staff across health and care services. Key recommendation 5: Culture and leadership From the founder and CEO of The Bail Project, The Courage of Compassion unveils how we can reimagine justice through compassion. Steinberg shares her journey as a public defender, representing people at precisely that time in their lives — their own worst moment. She recounts the heart-wrenching stories of her clients and invites us to interrogate our fears and beliefs about justice and punishment. Lastly, Steinberg reveals moments when she questioned her own capacity for compassion, as well as her ability to fight for better, more humane justice from within a system that is riddled with holes and seemingly interminable problems. Even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the health and social care workforce across the United Kingdom was struggling to cope. One of the greatest challenges is in nursing, with 43,590 NHS nurse vacancies in England; 3,607 nurse and midwife posts vacant in Scotland; 2,488 nursing, health care assistant and nursing assistant vacancies across health and social care in Northern Ireland; and an estimated 1,651 nursing vacancies in the Welsh NHS. Hoffman, S., Grossman, P., & Hinton, D. (2011). Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventions. Clinical Psychology Review, 31 (7), 1126-37.