SHU Hosts Fifth Annual Dialogue on Compassion
Two speakers share thoughts about spreading humanity on a global level
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and advanced practice psychiatric/mental health nurse Sara Horton-Deutsch recently participated in a discussion at Sacred Heart University on the world’s need for humanity. The event was part of the fifth annual Dr. Susan L. Davis, R.N., & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing (DHCON) “Dialogue on Compassion.”
Kristof is an author, political commentator and columnist for The New York Times and has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, one of which he shared with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, for international reporting. He often writes about humanitarian and social issues, a focus that grew out of his years working as a foreign correspondent.
“It really was my reporting over the years and seeing things that tended to gravitate me toward the kind of issues that I tend to write about more―in particular, after I became a foreign correspondent and I saw the human toll of policies of our [country] or other countries, that left a deep impression on me,” he said. “It wasn’t something so much that I learned intellectually that propelled me to these areas, but really more what I saw in front of me.”
Kristoff’s main point was that humanity can be a tool for change. “A starting point is compassion, which is what we are trying to highlight today, and empathy,” he said. “I think we’re much too quick to offer pointed fingers and not helping hands. What we need is that compassion, that empathy, to adopt those policies.”
Philosophy of caring
Horton-Deutsch is director of the University of San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Partnership and co-director of the Watson Institute Caritas Leadership Program. She has been a practicing psychiatric and mental health nurse for 35 years, as well as a professor, consultant and program director, and she was named caring science endowed chair at the University of Colorado.
She described research being done on caring science, a philosophy that connects the practice of nursing with the emotional state of being compassionate. “We offer a simple micro practice―a pause, presence and peace―in order to maintain a sense of care and compassion,” Horton-Deutsch said. “Sympathy, empathy and altruism create caring with compassion.”
Karen Bauce, a DHCON clinical assistant professor, organized the event with Susan Goncalves, a DHCON associate professor. After the presentations, Goncalves moderated discussions among panel members Colin Petramale, coordinator of community partnerships, faith and justice; Amanda Davis, a nursing student, and Donna Bowers, associate dean of faculty affairs and new initiatives in the College of Health Professions.
“Compassion is considered a verb; it is not a thought or a sentimental feeling, but it is rather a movement of the arts,” Goncalves said, adding that compassion is a core tenet of Sacred Heart University’s mission.
Davis said people are born with compassion, and being mindful of others enables them to relinquish their own selfishness. Petramale defined compassion as a spiritual concept. “When one of us is suffering, each of us is suffering. And that crosses political and sociopolitical boundaries,” he said, adding that compassion opens a path to greater love.
Pictured: Professor Karen Bauce introduces Nicholas Kristof at the event.
The “Dialogue on Compassion” and follow-up discussions can be viewed on YouTube.