Care and compassion: Have you got what it takes?

As health care professionals, we have incredible jobs that place us in the extremely privileged position of looking after our patients with care and compassion through dedication, motivation and enthusiasm.

For many of us this is what makes our chosen career so rewarding. We know that we can make a significant difference to the health and social care experiences of the vulnerable people we meet by ensuring that we provide the best possible quality of care at all times, through open and honest communication, competence, courage and commitment (NHS Specialist Commissioning Board, 2012).

We also know that the care that we would expect as service users is not always the care that some of our patients receive or deserve. Recently, the author accompanied a family member as they were admitted into a hospital ward and was disappointed by the complete lack of communication, care and compassion. No one in the ward introduced themselves or asked anything about my relative, other than to check that they had the right name and address (which, in fact, they didn't).