Supporting Compassionate Care in Communities Facing Adversity

The CAN workshops aimed to deepen participants’ abilities to understand how a therapeutic healthcare relationship works, make sense of all the things that influence it, and figure out how to respond in ways that strengthen it. The workshops also sought to take explicit account of intersecting social adversities, such as homelessness, trauma, substance misuse, and intergenerational violence that are often more prevalent in communities facing socioeconomic deprivation.

The evaluation found that the programme generated statistically significant increases in compassion satisfaction, self-awareness, and knowledge. It also demonstrated the value and impact of teaching relationally focused approaches to care for community nurses and midwives working in contexts of poverty and adversity.

The CAN programme offered a clinically focused, highly accessible way for practitioners to make sense of their own emotional experiences at work, as well as strengthening their understanding of the emotional experiences of others: people seeking care, colleagues, managers, and even the emotional life of organisations.

Relational approaches to care are a focus of several QNIS professional development opportunities, and you can find out more about these on the QNIS website.

View evaluation