On February 7, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report, “Compassion and primary health care”, which recognises compassion as a transformative force in primary health care. The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for an exploration of the role of compassion in global health, with specific attention to its impact on the quality of health-care services and its connection to primary health care.
Based on my personal experiences of interacting with pioneers in the medical field, and available evidence I can say with confidence that the report gives a big push to advocating compassionate health care. In the 74th World Health Assembly in 2021 and several other WHO and United Nations forums, I gave a clarion call to globalise compassion in health care. And, I am finally noticing that the world is waking up to the necessity of compassion.
Helping the patient and carer
Let me explain how compassionate health care is beneficial to both patients and the medical fraternity.
Most of us have had to visit a hospital or a doctor for a personal consultation or for family members at some point in our lives. We remember two kinds of health-care professionals — impolite and indifferent doctors and nurses, and the compassionate staff, who make a remarkable shift in our healing process.
Research conducted by Stanford University’s The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) has found out that patients treated by compassionate health-care providers recover quickly and the duration of their hospital stays is way less. Another study by the Johns Hopkins Hospital explored how compassionate communication has a significant impact when it comes to the recovery of cancer patients. It was observed that when doctors spend an additional 40 seconds with each patient and express solidarity with them by saying, ‘We are in this together’, it significantly reduced anxiety in patients and positively influenced their recovery.
Compassion is not just beneficial for patients, but for health-care providers also. When health-care professionals practise compassion, they experience reduced stress, improved job satisfaction, and build stronger relationships with their patients, which is essential for providing high-quality care.
Terms and the differences
Let us not mistake compassion with sympathy, empathy and kindness, terms which are often used interchangeably. Sympathy is a pity-based momentary response, while empathy is when people immerse themselves in others’ problems and they get overwhelmed in the process. Health-care workers who operate with empathy can experience anxiety, exhaustion, and sometimes depression when they internalise the anguish of their patients. Along with demanding work hours, the stress can lead to empathy fatigue and further degrade the quality of care to patients.
On the other hand, compassion is about mindful problem-solving. A compassionate health-care provider will have the emotional stability to work together with patients that will be favourable for both parties. They will feel the patients’ pain as their own but, at the same time, maintain a detachment that will not let them get overwhelmed. Compassion facilitates adopting a more sustainable approach to health care that will allow professionals to offer excellent medical treatment, be content and peaceful with the recoveries of their patients, and protect their professional and personal lives.
While the WHO report is focused on primary health care, we must also realise the urgent need for compassion in mental health. As per numerous mental health experts, depression can potentially become the “next pandemic” due to its widespread impact and long-term consequences on individuals worldwide.
Having worked with children rescued from slavery and abuse, my understanding of mental health has been deeply influenced through our experience. Let me share a story about a rescued child, Pradeep. Soon after his birth, an exorcist labelled him as the cursed child and gave a ‘solution’ to offer him as a sacrifice to appease the gods. However, on the day of the sacrifice, the blade that was supposed to slice Pradeep’s neck landed on his head instead, gravely injuring him. He was blamed for having survived, and then abandoned. When Pradeep came to Bal Ashram, the long-term rehabilitation centre at my organisation, Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, he could barely speak.
All children who come to Bal Ashram experience trauma, so we never coax them to speak or open up about their past. The teachers and caregivers who are trained in compassion in action at Bal Ashram are very sensitive towards the needs of the children, and that is how we see remarkable results. Pradeep’s transformation was also miraculous. Soon after he arrived at Bal Ashram, he made friends, would open up, and began to narrate his story.
This is what true compassion is, and my philosophy of compassion has always been rooted in transformative actions. To me, compassion is when we feel the suffering of others as our own and act to solve it.
We need to recognise that health care is not just about treating illnesses but also promoting the overall well-being of individuals. So, how can medical professionals incorporate compassion into their practice?
Putting it into practice
Let us look at a few strategies. To begin with, we need to create awareness on the imperative need of compassionate health care. Compassion should not just be a ‘good thing’ to do, but the parameter that drives decision making in board rooms. Compassionate health care must become the driving principle for industry leaders, hospitals, thought leaders, and health-care think-tanks.
Second, we need to equip health-care providers on what compassionate care is all about and how they can incorporate it effortlessly. All we need is a little investment in quality training of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff, and experiential learning. The fraternity should also be taught the difference between empathy and compassion.
Last, compassionate health care must encompass equitable, accessible, and quality health care for all, irrespective of their socio-economic stature, gender, or caste. After all, compassion is the foundation upon which we can build a health-care system that is truly people-centric and responsive to the needs of all.
It is time to globalise compassionate health care for all.
Kailash Satyarthi is a Nobel Peace Laureate and Founder, Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion
Published – March 12, 2025 12:16 am IST
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