Determinants of compassion in providing care to older people: Educational implications

Care provision underpinned by compassion builds trust and ensures a deeper understanding of the health needs of older people. Yet nursing curricula in the United Kingdom focus on knowledge and skill acquisition rather than caring with compassion. This negatively impacts on the quality of care. Despite this, there is limited research on compassion in the care of older people.

To explore the views of nurse educators (NE), pre-registration nursing students (PNS) and clinical mentors (CM) of the determinants of compassion in the care of older people.

A generic qualitative research design was used. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 39 participants (NE = 8; CM = 8; PNS = 23). These were digitally-recorded, fully transcribed and analysed thematically using NVivo software.

Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: the meaning of compassion, extrinsic determinants of compassion in care, and intrinsic determinants of compassion in care.

The outcome of this study suggests that nurses and students think that compassion speeds up older people's recovery and enhances the quality of care. NEs consider its application in clinical practice a demonstration of competence.

The inclusion of compassion in practical sessions of pre-registration nursing curricula and in the care of the older person may result in improved understanding of the latter and provision of holistic, safe and effective care.