“There are good reasons why healthcare workers need to understand the difference between compassion and empathy. Empathy can accidentally turn into empathic distress whereas compassion is actually protective for healthcare worker wellbeing”.

Dr Debbie Ling, compassion researcher in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University believes that compassion training will become a standard part of all healthcare worker training. Compassion training has already been delivered to thousands of healthcare workers around the world and is expanding into areas such as schools, leadership and business. Compassion is understood to have an evolutionary benefit. Humans are social animals and the ability to care, connect and look after each other is essential for the survival of the species. Compassion benefits everyone.

Compassion is a concerned response to another’s suffering combined with a desire to alleviate the suffering of the other. Whilst compassion is fundamental to quality patient care, compassion is also vital for healthcare worker resilience. The term ‘compassion fatigue’ is now considered to be incorrectly named, it is actually ‘empathic distress fatigue’ which can lead to burnout. Empathy is 'feeling with' another and can accidentally turn into empathic distress for the worker (personal distress). Compassion, by contrast, is focusing on how to alleviate the other's suffering and improves healthcare worker wellbeing, and protects against empathic distress and burnout. Learning how to transform empathy into compassion is crucial for healthcare worker resilience, patient centred care and job satisfaction.

Healthcare workers have multiple demands placed upon them and are regularly confronted with the suffering of others. There can also be barriers to compassion which may make it challenging to cultivate. Compassion training provides healthcare workers with strategies to enhance and strengthen compassion in any situation.

To empower healthcare workers across all roles, Dr Ling led the creation of Monash University’s Compassion Training for Healthcare Workers professional development course. This four week self-paced online course is designed to improve understanding of what compassion is, the science that underpins it, and how to cultivate and sustain compassion, even under challenging circumstances.

Joining Dr Debbie Ling in the delivery of the course is Professor Craig Hassed and Dr Richard Chambers who developed the “Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance” online course. This has been rated one of the world’s top online courses and has had over 400,000 participants. Professor Hassed is a medical doctor and education director of the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies. Dr Chambers is a clinical psychologist and key contributor to the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies.

Together, the team will help participants enhance and sustain compassion, avoid empathic distress, promote prosocial actions and create more caring and compassionate workplaces.

Learn more. Be more. Change it. With the Compassion Training for Healthcare Workers professional development course from Monash University.