Understanding Compassionate Care in Psychiatric Inpatient Services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development and Validation of Patients Experiences of Acts of Compassionate Engagement (PEACE) Scale in Psychiatric Inpatient Services
IRAS ID
351875
Contact name
Katy-Jane Pitt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
- Compassion can be defined as a sensitivity to suffering in oneself and others combined with the commitment to try and alleviate and prevent it. Compassion is a way of responding that seeks to address the suffering through understanding and action rather than being overwhelmed by another distress resulting in avoidance or dissociation. Empathy and sympathy differ from compassion as they do not encompass the motivation or intention to alleviate or prevent suffering within their definition.
- The National Health Service (NHS) has described compassion as a fundamental component of healthcare. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) also emphasises that compassion is a key indicator of high-quality care and is integral to their inspection framework. Compassion in healthcare is linked to reducing patient symptom burden, improving quality of life and improving recovery trajectories and support relapse prevention.
- There are two current validated patient-reported compassion measures, however, these have only been validated in physical health populations, or participants with a psychiatric diagnosis were excluded. Therefore, there is no current compassion measure that has been specifically designed or validated in a psychiatric inpatient population.
- The purpose of this study is to assess a scale for measuring compassionate care that has been adapted to be appropriate for a psychiatric inpatient settings. The scale has been adapted from Gilbert's Compassionate Action and Engagement subscale 'Compassion from Others'. This scale has previously been tested and validated within non-clinical samples, demonstrating a consistent subscale structure and high validity (Gilbert 2017).
- Identifying compassionate care in psychiatric inpatient settings is important for improvement of care provided, to improve patients experience and outcomes and support targeted training programmes for staff.
REC name
London - West London & GTAC Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/PR/0687
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion