iCare Compassionately: A Model for Integrating Compassionate Care Into Nursing Education

Compassionate care is essential for positive patient outcomes and nurse well-being.

Current models are largely practice-focused and not integrated in a nursing curriculum. Thus, new nurses are often unprepared to deliver compassionate care.

A single-purpose nursing college developed the iCare Compassionately model, offering operational definitions to support faculty teaching and student learning.

Students completing the Sinclair Compassion Questionnaire Healthcare Provider/Learner Competence Self-Assessment demonstrated a positive trend in self-reported compassionate care competence. Faculty and staff trained in the model showed positive outcomes, with 98% of participants identifying tangible strategies to enhance compassionate care and 94% reporting sustained improvements at a 90-day follow-up. Anecdotal feedback suggested increased student perceptions of being cared for by faculty and strong faculty support for integrating compassionate care content into the curriculum.

The iCare Compassionately model is an initial approach for nurse educators to integrate compassionate care into didactic and clinical courses.