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'We don't learn so much about compassion': A qualitative study of graduate nutrition students' ways of understanding
Joy Phillip1, Goswami Suhnandany2, Norris Deborah3
1Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M 2J6.
Background:
Compassion is important in nutrition education and practice, particularly as students prepare for relational, ethical, and emotionally complex work, yet it remains underemphasized in graduate nutrition education. Existing curricula often prioritize technical competence, leaving gaps in the development of relational and ethical aspects of practice.
Objective:
To examine how graduate nutrition students understand and learn compassion and to identify opportunities to integrate structured compassion and self-compassion education into academic programmes.
Design:
Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews analysed with reflexive thematic analysis under a poststructural lens. Course outlines were reviewed for compassion related concepts, and participants were invited to review key findings.
Participants/Setting:
Seventeen current or recently graduated master's-level students from a Canadian university participated in the study between 2022 and 2023. Most were international students enrolled in applied human nutrition programs.
Key Findings:
Participants understood compassion as relational work expressed through action. Compassion learning was often produced through informal experiences, including peer support, lived experience narratives, group work, and reflection, while structured curriculum more often supported compassion indirectly through related concepts such as social justice, empathy, and reflective practice. Four themes organised the results: 1) compassion as action in relations, 2) indirect learning through graduate experiences, 3) groundwork through curriculum and practice, and 4) self-compassion in context. Participants recommended role play, small group discussion, communication practice, storytelling, reflection, and peer debriefing to support compassionate action, self-compassion, and boundary setting.
Conclusions:
In the context of these graduate nutrition programs, compassion was valued but often remained implicit. The findings can inform the curriculum across other levels of nutrition and dietetics training contexts. Making compassion and self-compassion more explicit through experiential learning, reflective dialogue, and structured feedback may better prepare students for the interpersonal, relational, and emotional dimensions of future nutrition related work.
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