The Critical Importance of Compassion in Healthcare
Summer of Peace 2016 > Community Peacebuilding > Compassion in Action
Broadcast on July 13, 2016
With Dr Robin Youngson
As health professionals, our deepest purpose is to relieve suffering. But healthcare has become so caught up in science, disease, technology and drug treatment that we forget our patient is even a human being. New research illustrates that compassionate caring triggers a healing response in patients that may be more powerful than the medical treatments being used. When we make the emotional connection, we don't just relieve suffering, we change the course of disease.
Dr Robin Youngson
Anesthesiologist, Co-Founder of Hearts in Healthcare
Dr Robin Youngson is an anesthesiologist in New Zealand, internationally renowned for his work promoting compassion in healthcare. He’s the Co-Founder of Hearts in Healthcare, a global movement for human-centered healthcare. He’s helped lead change in many countries including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway.
His work is challenging the assumptions and beliefs of a medical system that treats the sick person merely as a broken machine needing to be fixed. But when we are sick, injured and vulnerable, or find ourselves in life crisis, compassionate caring makes the world of difference: it helps us onto the path of healing. More surprisingly, Robin shares the latest research showing that compassionate caring dramatically improves clinical outcomes, as powerfully as many of the medicines we prescribe.
Robin is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Auckland University, is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Compassionate Healthcare, and is a member of the Global Compassion Council of the international Charter for Compassion.
He’s the author of the acclaimed book “TIME TO CARE – How to love your patients and your job".
