Maintaining compassion in healthcare

BeAble Supervision creates space to:

→ Process the gravity of your job
→ Sustain your wellbeing
→ Practice your craft with purpose and humanity

Kia ora e te healthcare whānau!

With over 20 years of experience in Cancer Services, I have supported people through every stage, from acute care to end-of-life. Palliative care lets me offer the compassionate, holistic nursing I love. I get job satisfaction from helping patients and whānau have essential conversations and ensuring care needs are met promptly.

In my current role as Clinical Services Manager, my focus is on ensuring the team has the support they need to provide excellent care.

Originally from Wellington, I now enjoy the slower pace of semi-rural Franklin. I love staying active outdoors, relaxing at home, and spending time with my son, my cat Trixie, and a great circle of friends and whānau who keep me balanced.

Maria Iacoppi - MNurs Hons, PGCertProSup, PGDipPalCare, BHSc

How can supervision help healthcare workers?

  • Healthcare professionals work in environments where suffering, crisis, uncertainty, and rapid decision-making are daily realities. These pressures don’t just affect clinical performance; they shape professional identity, emotional wellbeing, and the capacity to deliver compassionate care.

    The work is ethically and morally complex. Clinicians often face dilemmas with no perfect answer, balancing patient autonomy, family expectations, limited resources, cultural needs, organisational pressures, and their own values.

  • Professional supervision supports professional development by creating a space to identify strengths, notice blind spots, and explore areas for growth.

    It helps clinicians reconnect with the values and motivations that drew them into healthcare, strengthening their sense of purpose in the work.

  • Professional supervision gives healthcare workers what the system often cannot: time, space, and safety to reflect on the human cost of caring for others.

    For nurses and doctors, whose work includes both acute emotional labour and immense responsibility, this space is not a luxury, it’s a necessity for sustaining compassion, clarity, and ethical practice.