Compassionate Care: Getting it Right in Health and Social Care - University of Dundee

The importance of compassionate care in health and social care has been brought to the fore in recent years by high-profile public inquiries into the mistreatment and sometimes deaths of patients at, for example, Morecambe Bay and Mid Staffordshire hospitals.

This free online course will explore the issue of compassionate care in relation to the key points from these investigations, and from other theoretical perspectives. This includes the need to create a common, person-centred culture across organisations. This person-centredness is not limited to patients, but extends to the way organisations treat staff and to the culture within the organisation itself.

Over five weeks, we will take a case study approach by looking at compassionate care from the perspective of a positive experience. The components of this experience and what went well will become the focus of each week, with an exploration of the factors that led to good outcomes for the patient.

Throughout the course, you will learn with academics and practitioners from across Scotland as part of the work of the Scottish Improvement Science Collaborating Centre, which has a core theme of compassionate care.

But you will also benefit from the shared experiences of both the patients, and the health and social care practitioners, who will join you on this course.

• the key components of effective compassionate care;

• of the impact of care that is compassionate;

• and how health and social care practitioners can implement these approaches to enhance compassionate care.