Concept of Teaching Compassion to Nursing Staff Within the Field of Dementia - Literature review Example

Download file to see previous pages Ten journal articles were selected using exclusion and inclusion criteria based on relevance, appropriateness, and the most recent research on the subject under investigation. A Fishbone analysis was conducted to determine the challenges for implementing and using compassion in the delivery of care to patients with dementia for determining the extent to which compassion can be taught as revealed in the literature.

Results: The results of the study indicate that nursing staff delivering care to dementia patients and dealing with families and carers are at an increased risk of compassion fatigue. The results indicate that compassion can be taught directly and indirectly provided the welfare and wellbeing of nurses are safeguarded and promoted.

Discussion: Implications for practice and directions for further research are discussed. The limitations and strengths of the research are also discussed.

Conclusion: It is concluded that in order to successfully teach and maintain compassion in the context of nursing staff in the field of dementia, three approaches have to be taken. First, nursing staff must undergo continuous training in incompetence, communication and secondly, continuous training must be conducted in compassion. This is because dementia is a progressive and degenerative disease and nurses must be trained in each of these areas as challenges arise. Thirdly, since nurses involved in the care of dementia are at an increased risk of suffering compassion fatigue, efforts must be made to safeguard the welfare and well-being of nursing staff to ensure that they are retained and nurses do not become over-burdened with an imbalance in demand and supply.
Chapter One: Introduction and Background

1.1. Introduction
Compassion is described as a significant quality in nursing that has an impact on the care delivered to patients (Kret, 2011). With respect to patients suffering from dementia, care science theorizes that core competence and skills among nursing staff include patience, consideration, and compassion (Rundqvist & Severinsson, 1999). However, studies have shown that caregivers administering care to patients suffering from dementia are at a heightened risk of suffering from ‘compassion fatigue” (Day & Anderson, 2011, p. 2). Compassion fatigue is associated with a lack of nursing staff juxtaposed against increasing patient demands and the physical and mental burdens nursing staff confront in meeting increased patient care demands (Bush, 2009).

Effective nursing care for patients with dementia is accomplished by the ability to look beyond the disease and to focus on the person and this requires a great degree of compassion (Touhy, 2004). Given the demands on nursing staff confronting the challenges of understaffing and the mental and physical demands associated with patient care, the question is therefore whether or not nurses can be taught compassion for the purpose of delivering appropriate care to patients suffering from dementia.
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