Intended for healthcare professionals

  1. News & Views
  2. Compassion can be...
  3. Compassion can be learnt and must be integrated into practice
Letters Compassion

Compassion can be learnt and must be integrated into practice

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4602 (Published 28 August 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h4602

All rapid responses

Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.

From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.

The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.

Kindness

Every spring, a bluebird flies down our chimney, gets trapped in the flue, and makes a tremendous racket trying to free itself. But birds cannot fly vertically, so eventually the little fellow falls into our woodstove, exhausted and defeated. Then we gently rescue him, take him outside, and watch him fly away. Like the bluebird, mankind is trapped, unable to escape or ascend. And man is waiting for the gentle hand of kindness to lift him up.


Competing interests: No competing interests

15 September 2015
Hugh Mann
Physician
Retired
New York, USA
Back to top