Ali Heywood is an RVN with over 25 years’ experience in education leadership, and quality assurance. She is passionate about shaping the future of veterinary nursing through quality education, compassionate leadership, and ensuring that the women in our profession can enjoy long, fulfilling, and sustainable careers.

Ali will be writing a series of blogs throughout 2026 linking to the BVNA Presidential theme of compassion and empathy. Check out the first blog here, which kick started the series in January. The second blog here is about micro-kindness. The third blog below is about how compassion shapes patient care, team wellbeing and the way we teach.

Veterinary nurses are often the conductors of the orchestra.

We may not always play the loudest instrument, but we are constantly listening -watching the patient, reading the client, and sensing the mood of the room. We keep things moving, soften the sharp edges, and sometimes hold everything together when the rhythm threatens to falter.

This role depends on clinical skill, of course. But it also relies heavily on compassion. Compassion shapes how animals experience care, how clients understand what is happening, and how teams function under pressure. It is frequently assumed, often invisible, and yet central to the work we do every day.

Veterinary nursing has never been just about medicine.

Compassion and the experience of care

Anyone who has worked in practice knows that calm, compassionate handling changes the experience of care. Animals are more settled, procedures feel safer, and recovery is often smoother. Recent healthcare literature reinforces this lived experience, describing compassion as an active, relational process that directly influences how care is perceived and received [¹].

Compassion also affects how clients engage with treatment. When people feel listened to and respected, trust increases and adherence improves. Modern healthcare literature consistently describes compassionate interactions as supporting understanding, shared decision-making, and continuity of care [¹]. In veterinary practice, this often appears to translate into earlier presentation, better compliance, and improved outcomes for patients. Compassion does not sit alongside clinical care as something separate; it shapes it.

The emotional labour behind the baton

Conducting an orchestra requires constant awareness. The same is true for veterinary nursing.

Nurses hold fear, grief, frustration, and uncertainty – often absorbing emotional weight so that others do not have to. This emotional labour is skilled work. It requires judgement, empathy, and emotional regulation, frequently under time pressure and without pause.

Contemporary nursing research shows that when this emotional labour is sustained without adequate support, compassion fatigue and occupational stress become real risks [², ³]. This is not a failure of resilience or professionalism. It is a predictable response to prolonged emotional demand in caring roles, particularly in the post-pandemic context.

People rarely stop caring; instead, they find ways to protect themselves so they can continue.

Compassion within teams

An orchestra only performs well when its members trust one another and feel able to listen, adjust, and respond. Veterinary teams are no different.

Research into organisational compassion consistently describes teams working in supportive, psychologically safe environments as communicating more openly, experiencing lower levels of burnout, and functioning more effectively [², ⁴]. Compassionate leadership and workplace cultures are increasingly recognised as contributors to patient safety as well as staff wellbeing [⁵].

The RCVS Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) has also highlighted the importance of kindness, civility, and support within veterinary teams as protective factors for mental health and professional sustainability [⁶].

In compassionate teams, people notice sooner when something isn’t right – in themselves, in colleagues, or in patients. They speak up earlier, recover more quickly after difficult cases, and feel less alone in the work they do.

Where education matters

This is where education plays a crucial role.

Those of us involved in education are increasingly aware that compassion is often assumed rather than taught. Students arrive with empathy, but they also enter busy, pressured environments where they quickly learn what is valued, what is rewarded, and what is quietly overlooked.

Recent literature emphasises that compassion is not simply an individual trait, but something shaped by culture, systems, and expectations [¹, ⁴]. If learners see compassion treated as limitless or incidental, they may come to believe that emotional exhaustion and silent endurance are simply part of professional life.

If, instead, compassion is recognised as a professional skill, something that requires boundaries, reflection, and support; students learn that caring well also means caring sustainably.

Education allows this to be named. Through role modelling, reflective practice, and honest conversations about emotional labour, we can help future nurses understand that compassion is valuable, finite, and worthy of protection.

Supporting the conductor

One of the risks in caring professions is expecting the conductor to keep the orchestra playing without pause, rehearsal, or support.

Organisational research increasingly shows that compassion must be embedded, not relied upon [², ⁴]. Supporting compassion does not mean lowering standards or avoiding challenge. It means designing systems, in practice and in education, that recognise compassion as a resource that needs replenishing.

When people feel supported and trusted, engagement improves, burnout reduces, and care quality benefits. Recognising and supporting compassion also aligns with our professional responsibilities around patient welfare, team wellbeing, and sustainable veterinary practice.

More than medicine, and essential because of it

Veterinary nursing will always demand technical expertise and accountability. Compassion does not dilute professionalism; it deepens it.

It supports sound judgement, strengthens relationships, and helps people remain connected to work that is emotionally demanding. If we want excellent patient care, resilient teams, and a profession people can stay in, compassion needs to be treated as part of the infrastructure of veterinary practice and part of what we intentionally teach.

Because when the conductor is supported, the whole orchestra plays better.

References

  1. Malenfant S, et al. Compassion in healthcare: an updated scoping review of the literature, conceptualisation and practice. 2022. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022;22:645.
  2. Nielsen CL, Lindhardt CL, Näslund-Koch L, Frandsen TF, Clemensen J, Timmermann C. What is the State of Organisational Compassion-Based Interventions Targeting to Improve Health Professionals’ Well-Being? Results of a Systematic Review. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2025 May;81(5):2246-2276. doi: 10.1111/jan.16484. Epub 2024 Oct 7. PMID: 39373033; PMCID: PMC11967289.
  3. Topi M, Tsioufi P, Fradelos EC, Malli F, Koukia E, Mangoulia P. The Impact of Compassion Fatigue on the Psychological Well-Being of Nurses Caring for Patients with Dementia: A Cross-Sectional Post-COVID-19 Data Analysis. Healthcare. 2026; 14(2):224. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14020224
  4. Pestian T, Awtrey E, Kanov J, Winick N, Thienprayoon R. The impact of organisational compassion in healthcare on clinicians: A scoping review. Worldviews on evidence-based nursing. 2023. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12664
  5. Foster S. Compassion is key to patient safety. Br J Nurs. 2024;33(6):0206.
  6. RCVS Mind Matters Initiative. Workplace wellbeing in the veterinary professions. London: Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; 2021.