Nurses (in England) to be rated on compassion

Nurses to be rated on how compassionate and smiley they are (link via guardian.co.uk) I think it should go without saying that patients expect nurses to be compassionate but should we really expect them to smile all the time too? Yes, it's nice when they smile (and I think most good nurses do try to be smiley and cheerful for their patients) but I don't think it should be so highly rated. I think the actual nursing care is far more important! From my own experience in NHS hospitals, the nursing care has always been first-rate. However, my first experience in an NHS hospital (in a maternity ward) was a nightmare because even though the midwives were fantastic, the ward was freezing cold, the bathroom was filthy and the meals were unpalatable. I think the government should concentrate on improving cleaning standards - and maintaining clean wards - plus improving the hospital food, rather than worrying about whether the nurses are smiling or not! Actually, after reading the article again, I think the nurses attitude toward patients is just a small part of the survey in this new government plan: The compassion index will be compiled by health regulators using surveys of patients' views while in hospital, including feedback about the attitude of staff. It will also measure standards of nutritional care, minimisation of pain, hand-washing, and safety on the wards. I'm not completely sure though how these surveys will make a difference regarding nutritional care, hand-wahing, etc. If the feedback from the patient's surveys is negative, what then? Surveys don't solve the problem, they just identify the problems and it seems to me that these issues have already been identified. Now they need to be addressed.