The Development of Compassionate Care in Prelicensure Baccalaureate Student Nurses

Abstract

Compassionate care is important to patients, nurses, and hospitals. It is identified as one of eight key concepts in The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education used by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021 for accrediting nursing programs. However, little is known about how prelicensure baccalaureate student nurses learn compassionate care as they deliver services to patients in real-world settings. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to discover the ways that compassionate care is role modeled by persons who supervise and work with student nurses. In addition, the study sought to ascertain how student nurses learn compassionate care, as perceived by those involved in clinical nursing education. Seven clinical instructors hired under contract at a liberal arts university in the Midwest and four practicing RNs employed at a local hospital participated in the study through a virtual, semistructured interviewing process. The results revealed the following themes on role modeling compassionate care: (a) involved presence, (b) empathetic understanding, (c) connection, (d) Wholistic support, and (e) attention to momentary needs. The following themes were identified as the ways in which student nurses learn compassionate care as perceived by the participants: (a) drawing from innate qualities, (b) guidance, (c) observation of compassionate care, (d) practicing compassionate care, and (e) experiencing compassion themselves. Based on these findings a tutorial program comprised of two instructional modules will be designed for clinical instructors and practicing RNs. Evaluation of the program will include assessment of process outcomes, learner surveys, and focus groups. Keywords: compassionate care, student nurses, role modeling, clinical instructors