Reflections about experiences of compassionate care from award winning undergraduate nurses – What, so what … now what?

Smith, Stephen; James, Asha; Brogan, Allison; Adamson, Elizabeth; Gentleman, Mandy

doi:10.1186/s40639-016-0023-x

Reflections about experiences of compassionate care from award winning undergraduate nurses – What, so what … now what?

Smith, Stephen; James, Asha; Brogan, Allison; Adamson, Elizabeth; Gentleman, Mandy

Authors

Dr Stephen Smith Ste.Smith@napier.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Asha James

Allison Brogan

Elizabeth Adamson

Ms Mandy Gentleman M.Gentleman@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer

Abstract

Background
From 2007 until 2012 Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Nursing Midwifery and Social Care in conjunction with NHS Lothian, collaborated on a programme of action research entitled, the Leadership in Compassionate Care Programme. One strand of this research focused on learning and teaching about compassionate care within the undergraduate curriculum. This debate article focuses on the care issues raised by two award winning nursing students who reflected on the development of their compassionate caring skills during their three year Bachelor of Nursing programme.
Discussion
The reflective accounts debate the following issues related to compassionate care; Personal drivers supporting the provision of compassionate care, Challenging and influencing care practices, Providing relationship centred care and, Living with what can’t be achieved. Throughout the debate a model of compassionate care developed from the Leadership in Compassionate Care Programme is used to reflect on key practice issues and provide a framework for practice development.
Conclusion
The care issues presented in this paper identify a need to support students in healthcare to; Develop strategies in questioning care practices which do not meet expectations of compassionate care; undertake focussed reflective activities where each student can explore personal drivers, values and perspectives of compassion; actively connect learning in practice with theory in university, enable development in compassionate caring and strategies that support self-compassion; facilitate an understanding and development of emotional intelligence supporting development of resilience.

Citation

Smith, S., James, A., Brogan, A., Adamson, E., & Gentleman, M. (2016). Reflections about experiences of compassionate care from award winning undergraduate nurses – What, so what … now what?. Journal of Compassionate Health Care, 3(6), https://doi.org/10.1186/s40639-016-0023-x

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 1, 2016
Online Publication Date	Jul 11, 2016
Publication Date	2016-12
Deposit Date	Jul 18, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Jul 21, 2016
Journal	Journal of Compassionate Health Care
Electronic ISSN	2053-2393
Publisher	BMC
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	3
Issue	6
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/s40639-016-0023-x
Keywords	Reflection Care Compassion Nursing Relationships Person-centred Action research Undergraduate curriculum Healthcare students
Public URL	http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/305075
Contract Date	Jul 21, 2016

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