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Enabling the flow of compassionate care: a grounded theory study

Tierney, Stephanie; Seers, Kate; Tutton, Elizabeth; Reeve, Joanne

Authors

Stephanie Tierney

Kate Seers

Elizabeth Tutton



Abstract

Background: Compassion has become a topic of increasing interest within healthcare over recent years. Yet despite its raised profile, little research has investigated how compassionate care is enacted and what it means to healthcare professionals (HCPs). In a grounded theory study, we aimed to explore this topic from the perspective of people working with patients with type 2 diabetes - a long-term condition that involves repeated interactions with HCPs. Methods: Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted between May and October 2015 with 36 participants, selected from a range of roles within healthcare. Data collection explored their understanding of compassionate care and experiences of it in practice. Analysis followed the constructivist approach of Charmaz, which recognises meaning as being created by the interaction of people working under specific sociocultural conditions. It moved from open to focused coding, and involved the development of memos and constant comparison. Results: Our analysis revealed that wishing to provide compassionate care, on its own, was insufficient to ensure this transpired; HCPs needed to work in a setting that supported them to do this, which underpins our core concept - the compassionate care flow. Data suggested that to be sustained, this flow was energised via what participants described as 'professional' compassion, which was associated with the intention to improve patient health and participants' role within healthcare. The compassionate care flow could be enhanced by defenders (e.g. supportive colleagues, seeing the patient as a person, drawing on their faith) or depleted by drainers (i.e. competing demands on time and resources), through their impact on professional compassion. Conclusions: This paper presents a model of compassionate care based on the notion of flow. It looks at processes associated with this concept and how compassionate care is delivered within health settings. Our new understanding of this phenomenon will help those working in healthcare, including managers and policy makers, to consider and potentially offset disruption to the compassionate care flow.

Citation

Tierney, S., Seers, K., Tutton, E., & Reeve, J. (2017). Enabling the flow of compassionate care: a grounded theory study. BMC health services research, 17(1), Article 174. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2120-8

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 24, 2017
Online Publication Date Mar 3, 2017
Publication Date 2017-12
Deposit Date Aug 21, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMC Health Services Research
Print ISSN 1472-6963
Electronic ISSN 1472-6963
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 17
Issue 1
Article Number 174
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2120-8
Keywords Compassionate care; Qualitative research; Grounded theory; Type 2 diabetes; Interviews; Focus groups; Healthcare professionals
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/2491838
Publisher URL https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2120-8

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.





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