Abstract
Kindness is widely recognised as important in healthcare yet remains poorly defined and is often conflated with related concepts such as compassion and empathy. This lack of conceptual clarity limits how kindness can be studied, measured, and embedded into healthcare practice and systems. This qualitative interview study explored how kindness is defined and conceptualised in healthcare, and how it is distinguished from empathy and compassion, from the perspectives of international experts recognised for their work in this field. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare leaders, clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates across seven countries. These are people who talk about kindness all the time – but do they have a shared definition as experts in this space? Data were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach informed by participatory action research principles. Participants consistently described kindness as a deliberate, proactive action that supports human dignity, fosters meaningful connection, and contributes to others' well-being. Kindness was viewed as broader and more inclusive than compassion, less emotionally demanding, and applicable across a wide range of everyday healthcare interactions. Unlike empathy, which was described as an internal process, kindness was defined by observable actions and impact. Participants also highlighted that kindness may involve honesty, candour, and engagement with conflict, challenging assumptions that kindness is synonymous with niceness. Beyond individual behaviour, kindness was conceptualised as an organisational value that can be supported or constrained by systems, leadership practices, and workplace environments. This study presents an empirically grounded definition of kindness in healthcare, laying the groundwork for future research and supporting efforts to embed kindness as a practical, operational value within healthcare systems.