Compassionate Care: Research and Education Project

Introduction
The lack of compassionate behaviour has been identified as a serious problem in professional discussions about health care. Research evidence confirms that emotional support and communication with patients and their families are commonly reported as omitted in practice, causing the absence of compassionate care and increased vulnerability of patients. Evidence-based and reflective nursing care education in this area is highly needed.
Goals and Methods
The primary purpose of the project will be to connect research, reflective learning, and practice. An experiential qualitative research design will be used to explore the experience and meaning that nurses and nursing students attributed to compassionate care. Additionally, the research will also focus on the perception of vulnerability in patients, compassion fatigue, and strategies to manage it. The interview and focus group will be used to obtain data and (reflective) thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke for data analysis. Based on the findings, the education goal will be the development of didactic tools such as workshops and reflective exercises that address this field.
Expected results
The project's output will be two qualitative studies about compassionate care (nursing students and nurses perspectives) and reflective workshops divided into two thematic areas: (1) vulnerability, compassion and compassionate care, (2) compassion fatigue, and strategies to prevent it.
Conclusions
Research and integration of compassionate care and its associated phenomena in Slovak education have been neglected for a long time. The proposed project aims to fill this gap and contribute to the humanization of nursing education. Compassionate care is expected from patients and their loved ones, it has benefits for nurses themselves, but it is also necessary to find ways that are effective in preventing compassion fatigue. The project will implement reflexive teaching strategies based on research findings in education and supports developing students' competencies.