Intelligent Kindness: Reforming the Culture of Healthcare

Intelligent Kindness presents a powerful new approach to healthcare reform. Ballatt and Campling argue that the NHS is a system that invites society to value and attend to its deepest common interests; it is a vital expression of community and one that can improve if society, patients and staff can reconnect to these deeper values. To do so will improve quality and patient experience, as well as morale, effectiveness, efficiency and value for money. Relentless regulatory and structural NHS reforms have failed to avert scandals and left many health service staff feeling alienated. Industrial and market approaches to reforms urgently need to be balanced by an understanding of what motivates and assures compassionate practice. The authors examine this topic from a variety of perspectives, including psychoanalytic thinking, group relations, neuropsychology, social psychology and ethology. This book calls on policymakers, managers, educators and clinical staff to apply and nurture intelligent kindness in the organisation and delivery of care, and offers advice as to what this approach means in practice.