Compassionate care during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jing Jing Su; Jonathan Bayuo; Rose S Y Lin; Arkers Kwan Ching Wong; Hammoda Abu-Odah; Qijun He; Ladislav Batalik

doi:10.1186/s12912-024-01827-x

Compassionate care during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Nurs. 2024 Mar 14;23(1):173. doi: 10.1186/s12912-024-01827-x.

Authors

Jing Jing Su¹, Jonathan Bayuo², Rose S Y Lin³, Arkers Kwan Ching Wong², Hammoda Abu-Odah², Qijun He⁴, Ladislav Batalik^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. sujj@link.cuhk.edu.hk.
² School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ Elaine Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
⁴ School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation, University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
⁶ Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Background: There was a substantial documented call for healthcare professionals to provide compassionate care during the COVID-19 pandemic and significant criticism voiced when it was lacking. This study aimed to explore perspectives on compassionate care among healthcare professionals providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on healthcare professionals who participated in a wide range of COVID-19 measures, including testing, quarantine, diagnosis, and care provision (patients with COVID-19 or patients with other illnesses and comorbid with COVID-19).

Methods: A qualitative design with an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was used. Twenty frontline healthcare professionals (15 nurses and five physicians) who had worked in COVID-19 facilities in China were interviewed individually.

Results: Participants stated that a commitment to 'offering oneself' and 'balancing the advantages/disadvantages' in providing care during the pandemic were key to alleviate population-level suffering. On a personal level, they described a desire for obtaining 'mutual support' and improving 'professional competencies' to safeguard their physical and mental well-being. Two professional competencies were notable: coping with grief and implementing infection control across the organization. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of receiving support from the health care organization, the public, and leaders in creating an 'environment conducive to fostering compassionate care.'

Conclusion: Healthcare professionals recognized the centrality of compassionate care during the pandemic which entailed a commitment to offering themselves, the balancing of advantages and disadvantages in order to find the best solution, as well as the need to safeguard themselves using professional competencies. Such findings can enrich the contemporary understanding of compassion, including when it is lacking. Support from the healthcare organization, the public, and leadership were crucial in fostering compassionate care in healthcare professionals during the pandemic and in moving the field forward in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19; Compassion; Compassionate care; Healthcare professionals; Pandemic; Qualitative.