Do you need to be compassionate to be a good doctor or nurse?

Recently, someone who follows this blog commented that they had no compassion for patients, and that this improved patient outcomes. It sounds heinous at first – god – someone like this in our profession? But he felt that there’s genuine merit to this idea. I know that at the very least, he’s a good nurse too. It was in response to a post I made on Twitter – below. He essentially asserted, and maintained after discussing with others, that he believes he delivers better care than others by not being compassionate, and focusing on evidence based care. It made me […]