In 1972 the world edged forward in its seat and looked again. A picture. A picture of a naked, 9 year old girl, running for her life, from a napalm bomb. Too late; the skin was already peeling off her back.
She was fleeing from a US air-raid in Vietnam. She'd pulled off the burning clothes and with them her skin. Nick Ut, an AP photographer, was there and took the picture that became a turning point in the war.
The image emblazoned the front page of the New York Times, later won a Pulitzer Prize and was syndicated world-wide. People started asking about a war, that was being fought by their government... was it a battle in their name?
The girl is now a woman; Kim Phuc and lives, with her memories, scars and family, in Canada; granted political asylum.
Last week another family was on its way to Canada; this time from Syria. It ended in disaster.
When Mother Nature gave us back Aylan Kurdi, washed ashore on a Turkish beach, once again the world looked, incredulously at the pictures. A toddler, in a red T-shirt, lying face down in the sand.
Two pictures changing the course of history.
Last Wednesday David Cameron he said he didn't think the answer was to bring in more refugees. By the weekend a photograph of a little boy had changed his tune. Bob Geldorf offered his two homes to refugees. A petition on Parliament's web-site reached over 400,000 signatures; demanding a debate. On Twitter #refugeeswelcome was top-trending.
We are a compassionate nation. We look at their families and think of ours. We wonder; what would it take for us to scoop-up all we could carry, risk everything to escape.
Compassion drives us to say enough is enough. Compassion has conspired against the Prime Minister caught between the rock of UKIP and the hard place of doing what is right.
Compassion is more than sympathy. Compassion invokes a sense of justice, fairness and a feeling of interdependence. Knowing; there but for the grace-of-god...
Compassion. More than ultruism. So many of us, in this mongrel nation with hearts of oak, have migrant backgrounds. Forefathers driven here by war, famine and hope. Compassion, from the Latin; Cum Passus, 'travel with'.
Compassion is a word, I fear, in the NHS, we may use too lightly. Chief Nurse, Jane Cummings, wrapped it in her 6 'C's initiative and 'Compassion in Practice'. This strategy comes to an end next year.
"Develop a follow-on strategy, (aiming) to deliver a vision that reflects the ... 6Cs... in line with the ambitions of the public and professions, addresses key challenges for providers and commissioners in relation to service delivery, sets a direction of travel longer than two or three years, and goes wider than nursing and midwifery in its appeal to other health and care professionals."
Don't ask me; I have no idea what that all means.
Do we want a strategy for compassion?
Can we insist on compassion? No. but we can create the time and space for good people to do even better things.
How can a young nurse with little experience of life 'Cum Passus', a terrified, dementing 90year old. How can a childless person 'Cum Passus' a family bereft at the death of their child. Few of us can 'Cum Passus' with an amputee or understand the life of a refugee or a rough sleeper.
We can work for the safety and happiness of our patients, residents, clients, carers and friends but that's not compassionate. It's professional. We can work to avoid pain, fear and sorrow but that's not compassion. That's being good at our jobs.
We could try intelligent-kindness? Mindfulness... being purposefully aware?
It is not compassionate to pretend NICE's 1:8 staffing ratios are anything but ludicrous. It is not compassionate to insist nurses and AHPs work at a frontline that is protected, funded properly and fun to be at. It's common sense.
Compassion can't be learned or traded. To pretend it can means the word has been hijacked, professionalised, sloganized and devalued.
Compassion is a big word, defining, huge and must be used sparingly, not sprinkled across the pages of another report, destined to be another shelf-warmer.
I'll be talking 'compassion' and a lot of other front-line topics with Janet Davies, the new boss of the RCN, at the King's Fund
on 1st December 5.30pm.
