Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

Compassion is considered an essential element in quality patient care. In healthcare literature is often confused with sympathy and empathy. The object of the research was to deepen, through literature, the concept of compassion in nursing care, to identify the qualities of compassionate nurse, how compassion is taught to nursing students and to identify the strategies used at the university to develop and/or strengthen it, if it is not an innate quality.
A background bibliographic research was conducted through Google Scholar, Google Books and books followed by a foreground research on Pubmed, Cinhal and Cochrane Library databases, which made it possible to identify the relevant literature. Using the following keywords: compassion, compassion AND nursing,  compassion AND care, compassion AND caring,  compassion fatigue.
Compassion, sympathy and empathy have different characteristics. Compassion is being motivated by love, the altruistic role of the responder and small acts of kindness. Compassion is part of  human caring theory, that embrace all the important elements of compassionate care. Several qualities of a compassionate nurse were found. 
Despite the need for technically skilled nurses, compassion is the heart and soul of
the profession, and therefore must be intrinsic to nursing education. In order to promote transpersonal caring in nursing education, it's essential to explore pedagogical approaches that  stimulate and enhance the development of empathy and compassion in nursing students. By designing learning experiences that connect the cognitive and affective areas in ways that are meaningful to students, it can increase empathy now and encourage compassionate practice in the future.