Remarkable events: learning to care through narratives in nursing students during clinical placements

INTRODUCTION: Remarkable events foster comprehensive, reflective, and critical learning. These can be defined as short narratives in which students recount caregiving situations experienced during clinical placements that have had a special impact on their learning. OBJECTIVE: To explore nursing students' learning process using narratives generated during routine clinical placements, and whilst caring for others during confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: An exploratory-descriptive qualitative study was conducted. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 94 third-year nursing students participated in this investigation during the academic years 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. METHODS: The critical incident technique and classic content analysis were used to collect and analyse students' narratives about their learning whilst caring for others in two different contexts. RESULTS: Seven categories were identified, with wellbeing and safety emerging as the most prominent. Notable differences appeared across gender and year of study: in 2019–2020, autonomy gained greater relevance in the context of remote learning and the uncertainty of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Remarkable events proved to be a valuable reflective tool, enabling nursing students to critically integrate technical skills with wellbeing, safety, and autonomy. They also support professional growth and highlight the influence of gender and clinical context on learning. This approach supports reflective learning and fosters holistic professional development in nursing education.