Compassionate Care Development through Service-Learning in a Baccalaureate Nursing Student International Exchange in the US and Portugal: Lessons Learned

Introduction:
Caring is recognized as a critical core value by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the World Health Organization’s Nurse Educators Core Competencies. The goal of nursing education is to develop compassionate nurses capable of fostering therapeutic relationships with diverse populations while providing safe and effective nursing care. As students’ progress through their education, innate caring behaviors and attitudes are expected to evolve into professional caring behaviors, encompassing both technical and expressive interpersonal skills. Service-learning is a unique pedagogical approach to traditional clinical experiences in nursing education. Service-learning can foster the development of humanistic compassionate care which is required in today’s complex global healthcare.
Goals:
To reflect on participation in a nursing student international exchange to appraise the impact service-learning had on students’ perceptions of caring and compassionate care among diverse populations facing food insecurity in the US and Portugal. A “pilot” round table caring conversation was conducted post immersion to glean individual student perspectives related to caring and compassion in nursing.
Results:
Lessons learned indicated positive service-learning impacts towards the fostering of caring concepts and compassionate care among students. Strong relationships with key stakeholders addressing food insecurity in the US and Portugal were critical to providing a valuable learning experience for students. Personal changes related to preconceived beliefs and assumptions of the role of nurses, differences in healthcare in two different countries and the importance of caring in nursing globally were identified by students.
Conclusions:
Research indicates students’ participation in service-learning during nursing education can increase caring behaviors, such as meeting the spiritual and emotional needs of patients, empathy recognition, and affective domain transformation. Service-learning can be an essential pedagogy to inform nursing curricula that focuses on developing caring professional nurses.