Compassionate care is a process in which healthcare professionals interactively communicate with patients, try to explore patients’ concerns by putting themselves in their positions and understanding their situations, and do their utmost to eliminate these concerns. It involves having empathy or real concern for patients coupled with a desire to take action to address the patient’s need. Compassionate care is not only the right thing to do from a humanistic perspective, but it also raises the quality of care and helps to improve patient safety. Compassion in healthcare is an indispensable part of nursing and patient outcomes. It provides patients with emotional support and the confidence they need to fight disease, prepare for recovery, or enter into a serious medical procedure. Compassionate care can help relieve symptoms that may be causing someone physical or emotional distress and provide them with the knowledge and understanding necessary to go into their treatment.

Compassionate care is context-based and influenced by cultural, religious, social factors as well as the healthcare professionals attitude. Nurses who provide compassionate or humanistic care typically exhibit the following seven attributes: presence, attentiveness, empathy, respect, comfort, communication, and competence. Compassionate care is closely associated with greater patient satisfaction, more appropriate healthcare decisions, better patient adherence with treatment plans, and less costly healthcare outcomes.

To demonstrate compassionate care, healthcare professionals should focus on empathy, ensuring that the patient feels valued, respected, and comfortable with their care. They should create a secure interpersonal communication atmosphere, respect the personality of the patients and their family caregivers, and respect them with politeness and courtesy. Educational interventions such as providing feedback and reorienting have been mostly used to improve compassionate care.

Compassionate care visits are intended to permit limited indoor visitation and necessary support to residents facing serious health or emotional crises.