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You won't find much on kindness in your average nursing dictionary or textbook. You could, however, try dictionary.com, where you will find that kindness means to be considerate, benevolent, humane and helpful. We recognise acts of kindness when someone puts our needs above theirs, when they do something with the intention of making our lives a little easier. Acts of kindness are often small and fleeting, seen only by the person to whom they are directed, and are carried out without thought of reward. Acts of kindness are not judgmental, they are not rationed according to whether the person who benefits from the act is entitled to it. Nor is kindness a virtuous act of duty, performed out of a sense of obligation. Acts of kindness are acts of generosity. They do not demand recognition. They vanish in the moment. In nursing language, we could say kindness is related to caring. One of the paradoxes of kindness is that while most of us can recognise it, we would find it very difficult to explain "how" to act with kindness. Perhaps that is why kindness doesn't appear in the nursing curriculum. While we might like nurses to be kind, kindness does not lend itself to being taught, or "required", like an additional nursing competency.
But patients recognise kindness. Clive James is one of the world's most eloquent writers, a man of great erudition, humour and compassion. He is also terminally ill. James expected to die many months ago and is reported to have said he's embarrassed to be alive. In what will probably be...