Facilitating and hindering experiences to the development of humanistic caring in the academic and clinical settings: an interpretive phenomenological study with nursing students and nurses

Abstract

ObjectivesThis paper reports on nursing students’ and nurses’ lived experiences mediating their development of humanistic caring.MethodsUsing interpretive phenomenology, 26 participants were individually interviewed. A five-stage phenomenological analysis based on Benner’s (Benner, P. (1994). Interpretive phenomenology: Embodiment, caring, and ethics in health and illness. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE) method occurred simultaneously.ResultsThe analysis highlighted that the development of humanistic caring is affected by role models and counterexamples, environments in which humanistic caring is exalted or trivialized, communication-related courses, patient storytelling, and work overload.ConclusionsIt might be valuable to raise the awareness of nurse educators about their opportunity in shaping the development of students’ humanistic caring.

The presence of humanistic caring before enrolling in nursing undergraduate programs: Perceptions of nursing students and nurses

“…Because of space limitations, a thorough description of the interpretation process as well as the strategies used to ensure the study's rigour are reported in two other publications. [4,10]…”

“…Indeed, the first developmental stage of the humanistic caring competency was characterized by a conscientization to humanization of care: [10] reflecting on students' own experiences may support this conscientization. Because role modelling played such an important role in students' learning of humanistic caring, [4] it appears suitable for educators to share their own experiences because it could facilitate students' identification of and reflection on their past experiences. If there is one thing this study highlighted, it is that the majority, if not all, of students start their nursing program with a definite potential to humanize care, because their experiences are inextricably and fundamentally tied to human life.…”

“…Other studies demonstrate that humanistic caring can be learned and nurtured through an environment that cultivates humanism and caring. [3,4] Indeed, there is evidence that experiences lived before and outside of the academical settings may contribute to the development of humanistic caring. [5] For instance, a caring environment in students' homes, family values, or growing up in a nurturing family may foster a humanistic and caring practice.…”

“…These results are reported in other publications. [4,10] Besides, the aforementioned facilitators and hindrances involve experiences that were exclusively lived from the moment students had started their undergraduate program or after their graduation as nurses. Unlike those, the experiences presented in this paper pertain to the period before the participants' nursing education.…”

A Heideggerian Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Ghanaian Patients Living With End-Stage Renal Disease

“…For example, Benner’s (1994) method of interpretive phenomenology among others is a method that stems from the Heideggerian school of thought (Heidegger, 2008). This method gives significant understanding and interpretation to human existence, this human is referred to as Dasein (Létourneau et al, 2020).…”