Proposing a policy framework for nursing education for fostering compassion in nursing students: A critical review

Aims To propose a policy framework for nursing education to foster compassion in nursing students. Design A critical review. Data sources Literature was searched in CINAHL, PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar and sources published from January 2008 - April 2018 were reviewed. Review methods We screened abstracts and full-texts using specific inclusion criteria, developed summary tables for data extraction and synthesized data logically to develop the framework. Results Twenty-nine sources were reviewed. Recognizing, accepting, and alleviating patients' suffering are direct indicators of compassionate care. Three policy directions were identified: ensure the nursing curriculum has an appropriate balance of teaching-learning strategies that target learning in the affective domain, directly promote the use of reflection and the development of reflective thinking in students as an approach to enhance excellence in clinical practice and integrate information and assess students' understanding and expression of compassion throughout the nursing curriculum. Conclusion Compassion is expressed when nurses authentically work to understand patients' suffering and become sensitive to their experiences. Future research should focus on developing strategies that align with the affective domain and use reflection to optimize nursing students' experiential learning. Impact Policies are needed for cultivating a compassionate care culture and for fostering students' compassion, but no guidelines exist for nursing institutions. Targeting the affective learning domain, facilitating reflection, and integrating compassionate care indicators in clinical learning experiences can be useful. Therefore, nursing institutions can use these findings to integrate and measure compassionate care in clinical and educational curricula to foster students' compassion.