On Friday 20 September the Pastoral Care Commission for Healthcare Workers (Archdiocese Malta), in collaboration with the University of Malta, hosted a seminar at the Faculty of Health Sciences Auditorium Mater Dei Hospital entitled 'Compassionate Care for Health Care Workers: The Way forward in Medicine and Health Care'. The seminar was well attended by healthcare workers from various disciplines.
The opening was addressed by The President of Malta H.E. Dr George Vella and Professor Alfred J. Vella, Rector of the University of Malta. Both the President of Malta and the UM Rector spoke about the importance of compassion and empathy as vital expressions in the patient- health carer relationship that requires time and attention of the person exhibiting it. This needs to be balanced with increased emphasis on technological advances in medical sciences, and the need for health carers’ presence, finding time to attentively listen to the patient's needs, enabling the health carer to gain the patient's trust and build a good rapport.
Dr Josephine Attard presented the EPICC European core standards for competencies in spiritual care, for nurses and midwives, as the link between compassionate and holistic care. Ms Elena Felice and Dr Claudia Psaila discussed the issues of resilience and health carers' self-care as important tools in the prevention of compassionate fatigue and burn out.
The discussion during the seminar revolved around the necessity of compassion and compassionate care to be at the forefront of national and international policy, practice and educational debates. It is central in documents that promote models of practice that centre on relationships, and the need to nurture and sustain fundamental, person-centred skills and values such as those needed in the healthcare field. The emphasis on compassion is increasingly complex in healthcare and is often dominated by concerns about outcomes, efficiency, productivity and competence, alongside an increasing ageing population and a rise in long-term ill-health conditions. However, there is consensus that care and compassion remain integral to health and social care.
During the workshops, held as part of this event, a number of challenges tied to compassionate care were identified by the participants. Among these challenges are the long working hours, lack of teamwork and lack of human resources and the fact that language may be a barrier in building a relationship between the patient and health carer and between health carers themselves. The patient's age and career may also pose a challenge: older patients and carers feel isolated and ignored because of their age while younger patients and carers may feel disregarded as they may be regarded as inexperienced.
A number of conclusions and recommendations were drawn, mostly with regard to the fact that education in spiritual care competencies and compassionate care should be included early and throughout all healthcare professionals course programmes. Another of the recommendations focussed on involving managers and policymakers in team building activities for staff in order to enhance a compassionate work environment. Language translating aids to enhance communication between patients and healthcare workers, coming from diverse countries and cultures, as well as including the Maltese language as a requisite for health workers are also considered important.