The unbroken chain of human relations in the compassionate care of patients with heart failure: a phenomenological study

Mostafa Akbarian-Rokni; Mohammad Abbasi; Sally Pezaro; Marjan  Mardani- Hamooleh

doi:10.1186/s12912-025-02944-x

The unbroken chain of human relations in the compassionate care of patients with heart failure: a phenomenological study

Mostafa Akbarian-Rokni
, Mohammad Abbasi
, Sally Pezaro
, Marjan Mardani- Hamooleh

Iran University of Medical Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

105 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objectives Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances worldwide have led to an increase in the survival rate of patients with heart failure and their frequent hospitalizations. Nevertheless, survival rates remain significantly lower in Iran. Compassionate care shows promise in improving outcomes in this context. Consequently this study aimed to uncover the meaning of nurses providing compassionate care to patients with heart failure drawing from their lived experiences.
Methods A qualitative hermeneutic approach reflective of Heideggerian phenomenology was used as a philosophical framework. The sampling strategy was purposive. Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses (n=14) working in cardiology departments. The seven-steps of hermeneutic analysis were used to make sense of the data collected.
Results Data analysis revealed two themes and six subthemes along with one constitutive pattern. Nurses had experienced the delivery of humanizing compassionate care, along with the paradox of providing compassionate care for patients with heart failure. The first theme included the following sub-themes; ‘put yourself in the patient’ s shoes’; ‘superiority of altruism over duty’; ‘relying on the pillar of honesty in giving information to patient’; and ‘respecting the patient’s cultural beliefs’. The second theme also included sub-themes related to ‘Satisfaction through compassion’ and ‘compassion fatigue’. In this study, a constitutive pattern was revealed; “the unbreakable chain of human relations in compassionate care delivered to heart failure patients”.
Conclusion Findings can be used as a guide for nurses’ delivery of compassionate care. Compassionate care may be usefully promoted to improve outcomes in this context but must be paired with psychological support for the workforce

Original language	English
Article number	276
Number of pages	9
Journal	BMC Nursing
Volume	24
Issue number	1
Early online date	12 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-025-02944-x
Publication status	Published - Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you
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other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or
exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. T

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

Keywords

Heart failure
Compassion
Care
Nursing
Qualitative research

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10.1186/s12912-025-02944-xLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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Cite this

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title = "The unbroken chain of human relations in the compassionate care of patients with heart failure: a phenomenological study",

abstract = "Objectives Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances worldwide have led to an increase in the survival rate of patients with heart failure and their frequent hospitalizations. Nevertheless, survival rates remain significantly lower in Iran. Compassionate care shows promise in improving outcomes in this context. Consequently this study aimed to uncover the meaning of nurses providing compassionate care to patients with heart failure drawing from their lived experiences. Methods A qualitative hermeneutic approach reflective of Heideggerian phenomenology was used as a philosophical framework. The sampling strategy was purposive. Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses (n=14) working in cardiology departments. The seven-steps of hermeneutic analysis were used to make sense of the data collected. Results Data analysis revealed two themes and six subthemes along with one constitutive pattern. Nurses had experienced the delivery of humanizing compassionate care, along with the paradox of providing compassionate care for patients with heart failure. The first theme included the following sub-themes; {\textquoteleft}put yourself in the patient{\textquoteright} s shoes{\textquoteright}; {\textquoteleft}superiority of altruism over duty{\textquoteright}; {\textquoteleft}relying on the pillar of honesty in giving information to patient{\textquoteright}; and {\textquoteleft}respecting the patient{\textquoteright}s cultural beliefs{\textquoteright}. The second theme also included sub-themes related to {\textquoteleft}Satisfaction through compassion{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}compassion fatigue{\textquoteright}. In this study, a constitutive pattern was revealed; “the unbreakable chain of human relations in compassionate care delivered to heart failure patients”. Conclusion Findings can be used as a guide for nurses{\textquoteright} delivery of compassionate care. Compassionate care may be usefully promoted to improve outcomes in this context but must be paired with psychological support for the workforce",

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author = "Mostafa Akbarian-Rokni and Mohammad Abbasi and Sally Pezaro and \{Mardani- Hamooleh\}, Marjan",

note = "This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. T Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025.",

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doi = "10.1186/s12912-025-02944-x",

language = "English",

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journal = "BMC Nursing",

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AU - Mardani- Hamooleh, Marjan

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N2 - Objectives Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances worldwide have led to an increase in the survival rate of patients with heart failure and their frequent hospitalizations. Nevertheless, survival rates remain significantly lower in Iran. Compassionate care shows promise in improving outcomes in this context. Consequently this study aimed to uncover the meaning of nurses providing compassionate care to patients with heart failure drawing from their lived experiences. Methods A qualitative hermeneutic approach reflective of Heideggerian phenomenology was used as a philosophical framework. The sampling strategy was purposive. Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses (n=14) working in cardiology departments. The seven-steps of hermeneutic analysis were used to make sense of the data collected. Results Data analysis revealed two themes and six subthemes along with one constitutive pattern. Nurses had experienced the delivery of humanizing compassionate care, along with the paradox of providing compassionate care for patients with heart failure. The first theme included the following sub-themes; ‘put yourself in the patient’ s shoes’; ‘superiority of altruism over duty’; ‘relying on the pillar of honesty in giving information to patient’; and ‘respecting the patient’s cultural beliefs’. The second theme also included sub-themes related to ‘Satisfaction through compassion’ and ‘compassion fatigue’. In this study, a constitutive pattern was revealed; “the unbreakable chain of human relations in compassionate care delivered to heart failure patients”. Conclusion Findings can be used as a guide for nurses’ delivery of compassionate care. Compassionate care may be usefully promoted to improve outcomes in this context but must be paired with psychological support for the workforce

AB - Objectives Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances worldwide have led to an increase in the survival rate of patients with heart failure and their frequent hospitalizations. Nevertheless, survival rates remain significantly lower in Iran. Compassionate care shows promise in improving outcomes in this context. Consequently this study aimed to uncover the meaning of nurses providing compassionate care to patients with heart failure drawing from their lived experiences. Methods A qualitative hermeneutic approach reflective of Heideggerian phenomenology was used as a philosophical framework. The sampling strategy was purposive. Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses (n=14) working in cardiology departments. The seven-steps of hermeneutic analysis were used to make sense of the data collected. Results Data analysis revealed two themes and six subthemes along with one constitutive pattern. Nurses had experienced the delivery of humanizing compassionate care, along with the paradox of providing compassionate care for patients with heart failure. The first theme included the following sub-themes; ‘put yourself in the patient’ s shoes’; ‘superiority of altruism over duty’; ‘relying on the pillar of honesty in giving information to patient’; and ‘respecting the patient’s cultural beliefs’. The second theme also included sub-themes related to ‘Satisfaction through compassion’ and ‘compassion fatigue’. In this study, a constitutive pattern was revealed; “the unbreakable chain of human relations in compassionate care delivered to heart failure patients”. Conclusion Findings can be used as a guide for nurses’ delivery of compassionate care. Compassionate care may be usefully promoted to improve outcomes in this context but must be paired with psychological support for the workforce

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KW - Compassion

KW - Care

KW - Nursing

KW - Qualitative research

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M3 - Article

SN - 1472-6955

VL - 24

JO - BMC Nursing

JF - BMC Nursing

IS - 1

M1 - 276

ER -

The unbroken chain of human relations in the compassionate care of patients with heart failure: a phenomenological study

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