Topic > The role of compassion and teamwork in a medical context

IndexCompassionTeamworkConclusionThe need for compassion and teamwork is recognized as essential tools to improve patient satisfaction and improve the development of communication to resolve conditions of patients' health. This essay highlights the concept and meaning of both “teamwork” and “compassion” and highlights their importance as a current medical student and future doctor. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayCompassionCompassion is described as the feeling that promotes care given to alleviate the suffering of another person. The General Medical Council (GMC) states that when patients find themselves in difficult situations – this may be the case in palliative care – doctors have a duty to treat patients with compassion. This is beneficial as compassionate healthcare providers are more likely to find out more from the patient regarding their condition and thus improve the medical care of a suffering individual. This is because healthcare providers can build a relationship through trust which allows them to extract a thorough and honest story from the patient. One study that explored ways to measure compassion rated interpersonal interaction to increase the quality of patient-centered care and the absence of personal engagement as uncompassionate. Most patients recognize that compassion has more importance than the medical aspect because of compassion's ability to comfort and induce trust in trained professionals, so when patients are in emotional harmony with doctors, their development and recovery process is strengthened. Compassion involves kindness, empathy, respect and dignity. In particular, empathy is a significant skill that allows people to interact better and build a stronger social communication network. I gained this comprehensive skill when I noticed an increase in homelessness in my community. On several occasions I have offered money to people and unfortunately I have come to confess that this was not enough. This sparked my instinct to act with empathy, so I volunteered at a local food bank. At the food bank I was responsible for packing food parcels to later distribute to the homeless. I believe this involvement was a better approach to solving the suffering of homeless people because it impacted a larger community and provided a long-term effect. This helped me grow as a medical student because I learned not to get discouraged. This experience has also influenced me in that I can determine when to act appropriately if I see someone who is distressed; that small actions like dedicating time to volunteer have the potential to make a big difference in someone's life. In fact, the experience I have found is very similar to how small acts of compassion in healthcare have been proven to make a big difference in the quality of care provided to a patient. Despite strong evidence that compassion improves healthcare, recent findings such as the Francis report have shown that healthcare workers are failing to act compassionately in hospitals. Lack of compassion may be due to compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. This means that caregivers can get trapped into acting overly compassionate and consequently ignore their own emotional state. For this reason it is essential that doctorsmaintain a balance between work, private life and mental well-being. This can be achieved through stress counseling and resilience practices in exchange for becoming compassionate doctors. This management would not only mean that doctors would be better suited to practice in the long term, but patients would also be very satisfied with the patient-doctor relationship. This means my obligation to act effectively as a future healthcare professional, since during my period of practice I will be exposed to many conditions and therefore I have to tolerate extreme emotions to protect my role and mainly provide comfort to patients. I can handle this by reflection so that I don't get immensely caught up in patients' feelings to the point of affecting my status. Yet, still be able to act with compassion in a uniform way. Following the recent decline in compassion in healthcare, the National Health Service (NHS) has implemented a strategy called "Compassion in Practice" for nurses. This strategy is not only applicable to nurses but also to doctors who deal with patients on a daily basis. The NHS also expresses the concept of compassion by integrating it into the six constitutional values ​​of the NHS which are: working together for patients, respect and dignity, commitment to quality of care, compassion, improving lives and everyone counts. The values ​​are established accordingly as a basis for healthcare professionals to monitor and enable the dynamic functioning of the National Health Service. It provides a common goal for the multidisciplinary team to work towards and therefore aims to achieve a joint effort between team members, which is another and the first value of the National Health Service known as “working together for patients”, indicating the importance of teamwork in determining patient care. .Teamwork Teamwork in medicine is defined as multiple individuals of at least two people collaborating interdependently toward an achievable outcome for a patient. Effective teamwork occurs when each team member is assigned certain roles and responsibilities. The GMC highlights the importance of communicating effectively by highlighting that communicating consistently between team members is beneficial to the quality of care provided to the patient and, conversely, poor communication within team members can lead to to complications. This is supported by research that explored the factors that lead to poor patient experience, with the study finding that up to 80% of healthcare errors are due to a lack of communication within healthcare professionals. multidisciplinary teams. This suggests that individuals' approach plays an important role in determining patient safety; It is important to inform each member of the patient's health plan and interact appropriately with each other and with the patient to meet expectations. Having understood the causes of medical errors, as a future doctor I will therefore have to make working with my colleagues as important as interacting with the patient. This will not only act towards improving patient care and non-maleficence, but also improving my work environment. A reduction in burnout is also visible, working in teams can be beneficial for medical students especially when they are under stress. This is because strategies, responsibilities and talents are shared and there is more support available from colleagues. Feedback can be easily received within a group and several methods of providing assistance can be provided. It also improves the quality of care as members.