title: Compassion: what history teaches us.
abstract: Although the government and nursing bodies agree that patients have a right to be treated with compassion, reports such as the Health Service Ombudsman's Care and Compassion? Have criticised the NHS, and nurses in particular, for lacking this quality. This article considers how compassion has been characterised by nurse writers and educators throughout the profession's history and considers what lessons can be learnt by the profession today.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Care, Oxford Brookes University.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bradshaw
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004645:Empathy; D006676:History of Nursing; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans