References
Compassionate care in the community: reflections of a student nurse
Abstract
Reflecting on practice and analysing situations when compassionate care has been delivered can be a valuable way of helping student nurses develop their understanding of humanising care. This exemplar showcases a scenario when a second-year student nurse studying for a BSc (Honours) in adult nursing explored an experience while working in the community. She critically reflected on an incident highlighting a simple yet powerful example of how she helped an older couple manage an aspect of their care. This exercise helped the student to explore and understand what compassionate care means and highlighted how the value of reflection can be used to gain new insights to enhance the care of older people in her future practice in the community.
Helping student nurses to develop caring skills continues to challenge nurse educators and those working alongside students in practice, particularly in these times when the health service in the UK is under intense public scrutiny (Phillips et al, 2015; Wood, 2016).
For student nurses working in the community, striking a balance between learning the art and science of nursing can also be testing, and this paper exemplifies how a reflective model (Rolfe et al, 2011) can be a useful strategy to help students explore the art of compassionate care. The reflective framework proposed by Rolfe et al (2011) was used by the student in this exercise. It stems from earlier, more generic, reflective models, including those developed by Borton (1970) and Kolb (1984). Rolfe et al (2011) advised that there are just three fundamental questions that the learner must ask of themselves, and it is this simplicity that makes this approach easy for students to apply to their practice. Rolfe et al (2011) strengthened their framework by describing a series of cue questions for reflection (Table 1). These questions focus the student on their own involvement in an incident, thus fostering a sense of reflectivity and provoking thought about what to do should this or a similar situation arise in the future.
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