TY - JOUR T1 - Enhancing compassion in general practice: it’s not all about the doctor JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 340 LP - 341 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X685741 VL - 66 IS - 648 AU - Antonio T Fernando III AU - Bruce Arroll AU - Nathan S Consedine Y1 - 2016/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/648/340.abstract N2 - ‘Patients were left lying in soiled sheets or sitting on commodes for hours. Some patients needing pain relief got it late or not at all.’1 Such were the findings from the Mid Staffordshire Inquiry with recommendations for recruiting compassionate staff and having clinician compassion training.2 However, this call for compassion is not new. Medical codes of practice require us to practise with compassion. Compassionate care should be routine, a daily motivation and practice not unlike antisepsis and hand washing.The crisis of compassion in medicine is multifaceted in origin and no universal panacea is likely to be found. Many of us cannot define compassion or articulate the differences between compassion and empathy. Others might argue that compassion training is redundant as doctors are either compassionate or not. We remain remarkably ignorant about compassion, unsure of what it is, where it comes from, or what might influence compassion in our practices.Compassion comes from the Latin roots com, which means ‘together with’, and pati, ‘to bear or suffer’.3 Compassion is built on the capacity to empathise — a form of cognitive and emotional perspective taking — but involves the additional step of wanting to alleviate suffering.4 The distinction is important. An after-hours GP may recognise and feel the distress of a crying child having an asthma attack but, because he is now 30 minutes late in picking up his wife at the airport, rushes to the car park and lets colleagues manage the child. The family concerned might feel fobbed off and is unlikely to have experienced compassion as part of the clinical interchange. The doctor was empathetic but, technically, was not compassionate. Empathy without compassion is not only out of step with professional requirements but also is differentially likely to sustain negative … ER -