a b s t r a c t
Introduction: Current concern in health care about delivering care that is compassionate has important
implications for how compassion is taught and made explicit in nurse education curricula. This paper will
describe the use of stories within the curricula to enhance knowledge and skills in compassionate caring.
Methodology: The Leadership in Compassionate Care Programme (LCCP) was a 3-year action research
project that sought to capture what compassionate care means within practice and utilise this learning
within education. Stories gathered within clinical practice were used to stimulate reflective learning as
part of a nursing module that teaches recognition of acute illness and deterioration at Edinburgh Napier
University. Students listened to stories which included experiences of staff, students, patients and relatives and related these to their own experiences in practice. In this paper, examples from the online
discussions are discussed with reference to one of six themes that emerged from the LCCP, that of caring
conversations.
Findings: The discussions suggest that reflective learning and the use of stories about the experience of
giving and receiving care can contribute to the development of the knowledge, skill and confidence that
enable student nurses to provide compassionate relationship centred care within practice.
Conclusions: Reflective learning can be a valuable strategy for students to ponder new knowledge and
allow predetermined ideas to be challenged. Stories can initiate this process and help student nurses to
understand not only the needs of others, but their own expectations and values, which in turn can inform
how they plan and deliver person centred compassionate care.
ISSN:
1471-5953
eISSN:
1471-5953
Description:
Nurse Education in Practice enables lecturers and practitioners to both share and disseminate evidence that demonstrates the actual practice of education as it is experienced in the realities of their respective work environments, that is both in the University/faculty and clinical settings. It is supportive of new authors and is at the forefront in publishing individual and collaborative papers that demonstrate the link between education and practice.