Compassion, emotions and cognition: Implications for nursing education

Abstract

Compassion is often understood as central to nursing and as important to ensure quality nursing and healthcare. In recent years, there has been a focus on strategies in nursing education to ensure compassionate nurses. However, it is not always clear how the concept of compassion is understood. Theoretical conceptualisations that lie behind various understandings of compassion have consequences for how we approach compassion in nursing education. We present some ways in which compassion is often understood, their philosophical underpinnings and the consequences these understandings can have for nursing education. We argue that it is useful for nursing education to understand compassion as a cognitive emotion and discuss how such an understanding can inform educational approaches to compassion.

Suitable, fit, competent and safe to practice nursing? Assessing nursing students' personal qualities in clinical placement—An integrative review

“…Several studies emphasise tailoring assessment to a reasonable level, such as how far along in the programme the student has advanced (Burden et al, 2018; DeBrew & Lewallen, 2014; Tanicala et al, 2011). How assessments of safe, suited and fit students are approached in this matter feeds into a larger discussion in nursing education today: should we require that prospective students possess certain qualities before entering nursing education (such as the values‐based recruitment procedures in the United Kingdom, (see Gallagher & Timmins, 2022; Raustøl & Tveit, 2023; Traynor et al, 2017 for discussions of this approach)) or should the education programme emphasise that students develop these qualities after they have entered the programme? This again raises questions about what kind of qualities we are concerned with and how they develop in a person.…”