Using the Spirit of Ubuntu in Patient Care

Care Dimensions and other health care organizations across the nation celebrate Patient Experience Week annually during the last week of April. It’s a time to salute and thank staff, leaders, and volunteers for their commitment to providing compassionate patient care and going above and beyond for the patients, families, and the community they serve.

As we commemorate Patient Experience Week this year, I am reminded of a beautiful African philosophy known as Ubuntu.

I recently began practicing meditation to bring me a sense of peace and balance and to improve my emotional well-being and overall health. Recently, I listened to a 10-minute meditation session titled “Ubuntu.” It started with a breathing exercise to relax and gain focus, followed by a story for reflection:

There once was an anthropologist who was living with a tribe in a remote African village. One day he was playing a game with the village children. He placed a bucket full of sweets and told the children: “The first person to the bucket gets to keep all the sweets.” The children lined up keen to run to the bucket waiting for the sign. When the man said “Go,” the children held hands and ran together, and when they got there, they shared the sweets. When the man later asked why they had done that they replied: “How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”

The facilitator explained that Ubuntu is putting the well-being of a group above that of an individual. It’s about human interdependence, so no one is left behind. According to South African freedom leader Nelson Mandela, Ubuntu is not a single thing but a broad concept involving characteristics such as unselfishness and caring that “enable the community around you.”

This is not the first time I have heard about Ubuntu. A physician colleague (also the biggest basketball fan I know) told me about how the Ubuntu philosophy was introduced to the Boston Celtics by Coach Glen Anton “Doc” Rivers back in 2008. Doc Rivers’ Ubuntu mantra of collective success helped lead the team to its first NBA Eastern Conference championship in 22 years. Netflix has since produced a documentary “The Playbook,” which highlights the Celtics’ adoption of Ubuntu and their road to success.

Ubuntu is an African Nguni Bantu term commonly associated with the phrase: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” The spirit of Ubuntu is essentially to be humane and ensure that human dignity is always at the core of your actions, thoughts, and deeds when interacting with others. Having Ubuntu is showing care and concern for your neighbor. It’s lending a helping hand and displaying an understanding of the dignity with which human beings ought to be treated — for the simple reason that they are human.

Ubuntu and the patient experience

The characteristics of Ubuntu, such as gentleness, hospitality, generosity, kindness, and empathy, are in consonance with the hospice and palliative models of care. They are the things that patients and their families value most, and are included in our Care Dimensions mission and vision for that reason. Our staff, leaders and volunteers live these values every day as they care for and support patients and families in our community.

This week and in the weeks that follow, I encourage my Care Dimensions colleagues, our patients, and their families to see the world through the lens of Ubuntu. Let us all appreciate and nurture the relationships we have with one another, our interconnectedness, and know that we are better together.

About the author
Amy Ciancarelli is Patient and Family Relations Coordinator for Care Dimensions and oversees the Patient and Family Advisory Council.