Compassionate care: Benefits, barriers and recommendations

Compassionate care behavior requires understanding others' values, establishing relationships with them, and re-sponding to them in meaningful ways. Compassionate care has important effects on patient care quality and is an indispensable element of patient-centered care. In recent years, studies of the effects of compassion on patients in clinical care have started to emerge. However, the literature reports that the effect of compassionate care on patient care has not been clearly defined nor has it been examined sufficiently. This review describes the benefits of compassionate care reported in the literature and example cases. It classifies the benefits of compassionate care as: positive effects on patient outcomes, improving nurses' understanding of involving patients and families in care, the ability to identify the needs of patients and families, and the ability to use appropriate approaches. Reviewing the factors that affect compassionate care positively or negatively is important in terms of guiding nursing practices. That is why this study also discusses the barriers to the provision of compassionate care related to work environment and individual factors and recommendations for compassionate care. © 2020 by Journal of Psychiatric Nursing.