“Always be a little kinder than necessary.” —James M. Barrie
It has taken a pandemic with all the consequences of lack of preparedness and often an inadequate response, for us to realise how fallible we are. There are many lessons on what true leadership should look like and how the absence of leadership can be catastrophic. The success of the response has rested on the hard work of those on the frontline and on the acceptance of citizens to be sensible and follow public health advice.
It has taken a pandemic with all the consequences of lack of preparedness and often an inadequate response, for us to realise how fallible we are. There are many lessons on what true leadership should look like and how the absence of leadership can be catastrophic. The success of the response has rested on the hard work of those on the frontline and on the acceptance of citizens to be sensible and follow public health advice.
The wellness of the healthcare worker and the fragility of person centred care are two sides of the same coin. The pandemic has taught me that we must look at our inner selves and ask why it is that we lost compassion and kindness in our rush to have technological solutions to disease management. This industrialisation of health and of healthcare may have led to the severity of the impact of COVID.
This is the year of the Healthcare Worker, in recognition of the need to ensure that we care for those who care. This is not only physical protection, but also providing psychological safety and ensuring the wellness of people. We have the opportunity to infuse our work with compassion, but more importantly with kindness for the person and their family, be they healthcare provider or the person receiving care. Person and Kin centred care is the foundation of all that we do. At ISQua we are keen to instil kindness in our activities and how we work with you. Kindness is the essential ingredient of care, so we must rebuild our health and healthcare system with acts of kindness.
For example, look at the following:
Mango Moments Op zoek naar Mangomomenten from our institutional member KU Leuven and @krisvanhaecht or the rekindling vlogs Op zoek naar Mangomomentento get an idea of what we can do to make a difference.
Follow the BMJ Leadership blog series by @HelenBevanTweet and @goranhenriks https://t.co/OTtSeL7XEj. And have a look at the compassion series @FACEofHealth led by @Shams_Syed from the WHO https://taskforce.org/global-health-compassion-rounds-volume-3-report/
More importantly let us add kindness to our daily activities. Be kind to each other and be kind to yourself – you can never be too kind.
Join us if you are not an ISQua member and come to our annual ISQua Knowledge Festival 8-11 July at our Virtual Florentine Conference .
Register now at https://events.lenagroup.eu/2020/net/isqua/
Dr Peter Lachman,
ISQua CEO
