EMPIRICAL STUDIES Factors facilitating nurses to deliver compassionate care: a qualitative study Vahid Zamanzadeh PhD (Professor of Nursing) 1 , Leila Valizadeh PhD (Associate Professor of Nursing) 2 , Azad Rahmani PhD (Assistant Professor of Nursing) 3 , Margreet van der Cingel MscN, PhD (College professor and Senior Researcher) 4 and Mansour Ghafourifard PhD (PhD Student in Nursing) 5 1 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, 2 Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, 3 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, 4 School of Healthcare, University of Applied Sciences Windesheim, Zwolle, The Netherlands and 5 Student Research Committee, Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Scand J Caring Sci; 2018; 32; 92–97 Factors facilitating nurses to deliver compassionate care: a qualitative study Background: Compassion is an important ethical founda- tion of all healthcare professionals especially for nursing. However, there is little understanding of factors which could help and motivate nurses to deliver compassionate care in modern healthcare practices today. Moreover, a cultural context may affect the way compassionate care is delivered by healthcare professionals. Aims and objectives: This study aimed to explore what facilitates compassionate care in daily practice from the unique perspective of Iranian nurses. Research methods: This qualitative exploratory study was conducted in four hospitals. In this study, 16 nurses were selected from various wards. Data were collected by in- depth, face-to-face interviews. For data analysis, a con- ventional content analysis approach was used. Results: As the most important theme, the theme ‘deep- ening individual’s capacity for compassionate care’ emerged, which consisted of three categories: the per- sonal system of values and beliefs, patient experience and positive role models of compassion. Conclusions: Addressing and developing nurses’ capacity for compassion is possible by providing organisational support and professional education, next to recruiting nurses with a high motivation to relieve patient suffer- ing. These recommendations would help to provide high- quality compassionate care in healthcare practices. More- over, nurses could improve their individual capacity for compassion by following their value and belief system and by considering their colleagues as a role model of compassionate practice. Keywords: compassion, compassionate care, clinical practice, nurse, qualitative research. Submitted 10 August 2016, Accepted 15 December 2016 Introduction Compassion is widely acknowledged as a first principle of healthcare ethics for professionals (1). It is also consid- ered to be the ethical foundation for high-quality care (2, 3). Compassion has been defined in different ways (4, 5). Frampton et al. (6) described compassion as ‘a deep feel- ing of connectedness with the experience of human suf- fering that requires personal knowing of the suffering of others, evokes a moral response to the recognised suffer- ing and that results in caring that brings comfort to the sufferer’, and Dewar (7) argued that ‘compassion involves noticing another person’s vulnerability’. In fact, compassionate care offers comfort to suffering others and the component of acting upon feeling compassion differ- entiates compassion from other emotions such as sympa- thy or empathy (8, 9). Nurses, due to their position as a front-line practi- tioner, always deal with patient suffering in any health- care setting (10). Thus, compassionate care is greatly relevant for nursing practice (8). Compassion, as a pow- erful emotion, has positive consequences for both patients and healthcare providers (11). It is an important motivational factor for nurses in order to provide good quality of care, and compassion can persuade patients to have courage (12). Thus, compassionate care not only increases patients’ satisfaction but also enhances nurses’ job satisfaction and hence could decrease their turnover Correspondence to: Mansour Ghafourifard, Student Research Committee, Department of Medical Surgical Nursing,Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shariati-jonubi st., Tabriz, Iran. E-mail: m.ghafori@yahoo.com 92 © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science doi: 10.1111/scs.12434