Background: Narratives have the potential to promote person-centred practice, yet few studies have been undertaken on the impact of a narrative approach on learning for care professionals or students. With this in mind, we co-designed an educational programme on the use of older persons’ narratives for professionals in research, education and nursing. Aims: To investigate the impact of attending a narrative educational programme on the learning of nursing and healthcare assistant students, and on their person-centred practice. We also examined what factors characterised and influenced this learning. Methods: This was a mixed-methods evaluation study. We evaluated the impact of a narrative educational programme on third-year healthcare assistant students and second-year nursing students. Students were invited to complete a survey before and after the educational programme. After the programme, we performed interviews with all the educators and some of the students. Results: Students’ learning from the narratives was varied, and there were differences in the extent to which the programme raised awareness. Some students demonstrated new understandings, actions and behaviours. Students self-reported that they had experienced learning related to 12 learning outcomes and to their person-centred practice. According to educators and students, this learning was experiential and reflective, and was influenced by the students’ level of participation, personal characteristics and openness to other perspectives, as well as the educators’ guidance and the workplace conditions. Conclusion: This study shows that the educational programme ‘Tell Me! Learning From Narratives’ can contribute to the learning of healthcare assistant and nursing students in terms of their understanding of the field of narrative inquiry as well as the development of their person-centred practice. Providing support for educators is a prerequisite for the programme to work. Implications for practice: The programme has the potential to contribute to a person-centred care curriculum Self-evaluation, for example via the self-scan person-centred care survey in this study, prompts awareness in students Educators should be supported in their use of a narrative approach, person-centred care values and didactic skills Educators should reflect the values of person-centred care in their practice and in their relationships with students as role models
Background: Intimacy and sexuality are essential aspects of quality of life for older adults in long-term care. Numerous tools and interventions are available to support healthcare professionals in their conversations about intimacy and sexuality but they are often unfamiliar with these, or do not know when or how to use them. Aim: To develop a tool to help healthcare professionals choose from existing interventions to facilitate conversations with older adults on the subject of intimacy and sexuality. Methods: A design study, comprising five substudies and 16 workshops, was carried out in inpatient and outpatient settings for older adults. Participants were healthcare and design professionals, older adults and their relatives, undergraduate students and researchers. Data collection and analysis took place in several iterations, with insights from one phase guiding the design of the next. Findings: A paper brochure and a digital knowledge programme (IntiME) was developed to inform the selection of interventions and tools to initiate conversations about intimacy and sexuality with older adults. Initial experiences with IntiME suggest it can support healthcare professionals in this area. Conclusions: The IntiME tool has the potential to improve person-centred care around intimacy and sexuality by matching the personal characteristics of healthcare professionals and older adults with available interventions and tools. Further research into experiences with the use of IntiME is warranted. Implications for practice: IntiME has the potential to improve person-centred care by matching the personal characteristics of staff and older adults with available interventions and tools Co-creation with older adults and staff plays an important part in designing tools for person-centred care Using IntiME may help staff become more aware of their own needs and thereby enhance competence in conversations about intimacy and sexuality
Background: This article shares the reflection journey of a newly formed workplace wellness team, whose members documented their experience throughout an eight-week project using reflective journaling. Reflection was seen as a valuable tool for developing greater self-awareness and insight into team dynamics. Sharing reflections among the team also served to strengthen bonds and provided a chance to discuss challenges that were faced. Aim: To demonstrate the importance of promoting and prioritising the practice of reflection amid the high workload intensity of a busy healthcare environment. Conclusion: A diverse group of healthcare workers was able to identify the value of dedicated worktime for reflection while meeting the demands of project targets and tight time frames. Implications for practice: Personal and team reflective practice offers teambuilding opportunities for newly formed teams along with time for confidence building, self-improvement and connecting with others Timely documentation of these reflections can give immediate insight into challenges individuals or the entire team may be experiencing, thus allowing prompt response and adjustments, in addition to creating a record for personal and team learnings over time To ensure engagement in, and sustainability of, wellness-oriented reflective practice, both bottom-up and top-down commitment is required
This paper is derived from research I undertook as a part of my honours degree in nursing. My research produced a thesis that examined person-centred care in Australian residential aged-care settings. The idea for this came from my 15 years’ experience as an aged-care nurse and questions arising from my lived experience of person-centred care not being a reality for residents, families and staff despite being widely espoused in the aged-care sector. The sector in Australia is undergoing a system redesign, with proposals for a new Aged Care Act put forward this year by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (RCACQS, 2021) after a review of the aged-care system between 2018 and 2021. The review looked into the prevalence of elder abuse and estimated that almost 40% of residents may have experienced emotional, physical or neglectful abuse (RCACQS, 2020a). Person-centred care could be an important concept to establish in Australian residential aged care in order to tackle the experience of abuse and embed high-quality, safe services.
When thinking about the subject for this editorial, we found it hard to look beyond the current context of health and care and the continuous challenges faced by those striving to develop person-centred cultures, to enable the best outcomes and experiences for all. Through our work with clinically based practitioners, we have both noticed a concerning downward turn, with increasing reports of staff fatigue and ill health, workforce shortages and frequent changes in management, all at a time of growing levels of patient need. A perfect storm! As I (Kate) prepared a presentation recently, I found myself thinking about the story of Hans, a small boy who found a leak in a dike and used his finger to plug the hole and save his town from a potential deluge of water. This reminded me of a recent supervision session, when I used the metaphor of a dam to help someone to explore the pressure they were experiencing. What was contributing to the force of water? What, if any, were the sources of water that were in their control to divert before they reached the dam? What was the nature of the bricks the dam was built from? How could the bricks be supported and strengthened? Where could more bricks be found? But holding back the water is not in the gift of one individual. We need to share the load and work collaboratively to understand what is important and what matters to people (patients and staff), to prioritise where we put our efforts and energy. We also need to be innovative and creative, to explore what is possible, to enable people to be the best that they can be, and to offer hope and joy at a time when it is in short supply. And so, what is encouraging, as we share this issue of the International Practice Development Journal with you, are the many ways in which the authors are doing just that.
Background: I discovered the concept of muchness when reading a blog that considered quotes from Alice in Wonderland to identify what meaning they could offer healthcare. One was from the Mad Hatter: ‘You used to be much more “muchier”. You’ve lost your muchness.’ Reflecting on my experiences of working with nurses who reported feeling overworked, undervalued and undermined, I questioned whether some nursing staff had lost their muchness – their subjective experience of wellbeing. Aims: The research aimed to work with nurses to explore two research questions: What is muchness? How can muchness be nurtured? Methods: An innovative research method was developed – Virtual Picture Voice. This enabled nurses to create and share ‘stories of muchness’ and then participate in their analysis and synthesis, contributing to the creation of the Muchness Model Version 1. A metasynthesis process followed, drawing on wider theoretical understandings and resulting in the development of the Muchness Model Version 2. Findings: Version 2 advocates for a ‘full-life’ understanding of wellbeing – a balance between the pursuit of feeling fulfilled and feeling good, facilitated by reflection and action. Conclusions: A holistic approach to the facilitation of wellbeing can enable nurses to identify what is important/matters to them, personally and professionally. Critical reflection on self, our relationships and the contexts in which we work can generate knowledge to inform actions towards experiencing subjective wellbeing in the workplace. Implications for practice: Creative approaches to self-inquiry can facilitate access to experiential and embodied knowledge, informing actions that facilitate wellbeing The Muchness Model Version 2: – can stimulate critical reflection and dialogue with self and others, helping identify factors that enable or limit muchness and potentially informing action at individual, team and organisational levels – offers a person-centred approach to the facilitation of wellbeing in nurses across the career trajectory and within leadership and culture-change programmes
Women who are trying to carry out doctoral studies and build a career may find this time overlaps with their biologically optimal reproductive years. The assumption that this should oblige women to prioritise one or the other needs to be challenged and a person-centred approach adopted for students wishing to start a family during their PhD studies. Challenging this binaristic premise and taking person-centred approaches to support doctoral student mothers can help to encourage further women of childbearing age to undertake doctoral research training. Person-centredness is defined by McCormack and McCance (2017, p 3) as: ‘…an approach to practice established through the formation and fostering of healthful relationships between all care providers, service users and others significant to them in their lives. It is underpinned by values of respect for persons, individual right to self-determination, mutual respect and understanding. It is enabled by practice development.’ Research has shown that the ability of women to balance work and family responsibilities is a significant determinant of their ability to advance academically (Thanacoody et al., 2009). Studies have also demonstrated that women take longer than men to complete doctoral programmes and experience a lower publication rate compared with men as a result of family obligations (Velander et al., 2021). Equally, it has been shown that starting a family during academic studies can negatively affect women’s careers but not men’s (Acker and Webber, 2017). Combining motherhood and academic work within higher education has long been discussed and these discrepancies are significant when it comes to women developing research careers. So we need to ask, how can we adopt person-centred approaches to support doctoral student mothers in completing their PhD research and its associated publications as well as successfully navigating motherhood?
Background: The school of nursing at the University of Wollongong developed an innovative approach entitled the ‘Students as Researchers Internship’ to provide an opportunity for students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders to experience research as co-researchers. This programme was developed in response to a need to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons who complete research degrees and progress to academic careers in nursing. The initial programme included two students who identified as Aboriginal women in their final year as bachelor of nursing students, with both employed as research assistants. Aim: This article aims to share the students’ perspective of their learnings from participating in the Students as Researchers Internship programme through a critical reflection using the Mezirow model of reflection. Conclusion: The opportunity to be a research assistant and co-researcher during the final year of the bachelor of nursing degree offered the students a platform to gain skills, and an understanding of the research process and the application of research in practice. It also provided the experience of being supported in their academic studies. Implications for practice: Mezirow’s model of reflection provides an effective framework for students to unearth their assumptions and learnings from experience Developing skills and experience in research can transform undergraduate students’ understanding of the application of research in their practice Participation in writing ethics applications and research publications offers students insight into the skills of referencing, academic writing and critical thinking The experience as co-researchers enabled students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders to consider future career opportunities in research
Background: The World Health Organisation’s Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 sets out how vital the healthcare workforce is to the resilience of communities and health systems. Nurses are the largest professional group in that workforce and therefore support for nurses’ practice roles and wellbeing is pivotal to sustaining the global health economy. Nurses with extensive experience can contribute significantly in this respect, and the notion of the legacy practitioner role arose in response to the need to retain the expertise of long-serving nurses. Aim: The aim of the pilot project evaluation was to gather impact evidence of a newly introduced legacy practitioner role, as a workforce planning strategy for retaining the expertise of professionals considering or close to retirement. Design: A mixed-methods case study evaluation was used to capture stakeholder-driven process and outcome data. Emphasis was placed on interacting with project participants and stakeholders with a view to understanding human interconnectedness in the context of sustainable learning and quality-driven improvements at system level. Data analysis used first-order thematic analysis to capture process indicators, followed by a second-order impact framework analysis of workforce and system-level transformation to capture potential sustainable outcome indicators. Conclusion: Evidence identified six core aspects of the legacy role, with one outcome indicator related to reducing attrition in the workplace. Two overarching themes – enhancing practice skills and knowledge exchange – considered the impact of the role, not only with existing healthcare staff but in ‘feeding forward’ practice expertise to the potential future workforce. Implications for practice: Evidence suggests the legacy role can enable knowledge and skill enhancement, and help stressed or anxious staff and learners overcome thoughts and intentions to leave The role provides clinically credible, practice-driven expertise, helping create the conditions for safe and effective person-centred practice Legacy roles can inspire a professional expertise, based on values of compassion and respect that are spread and sustained among new staff External stakeholders who engage with legacy practitioners can also experience positive outcomes
Background: Ophthalmology in the Republic of Ireland has one of the longest waiting lists in healthcare, with around 44,000 people awaiting a first outpatient appointment. In the north-east region, 12,500 people are waiting. The North-Eastern Region Integrated Eye Care Service (NERIECS) was established in 2021 to improve patient care and access to services. A key driver for the team was to understand ‘how we work together’ to enable a shared vision of change within regional services. Aim: To support hospital and community ophthalmology services, which comprise eight organisations in the region, to prepare for the development of system-level integration of eyecare services. Methods: We integrated a popular process-improvement methodology, Lean Six Sigma, with a person-centred approach to support staff to develop a shared vision of change and to deliver improvements for ophthalmology services. Findings: The integrated approach enabled staff to work in ways that supported the development of good quality, person-centred care that takes account of the outcomes for and experiences of ophthalmology patients and their families, and of staff. Conclusions: Our work builds on a recent study that identified coherence in the underlying philosophy, intention, method and outcomes of Lean Six Sigma and person-centred approaches to healthcare improvement, highlighting the added value of an integrated approach in enabling improvement that positively impacts patient outcomes and healthcare culture. Implications for practice: The application of an integrated approach to process improvement in healthcare is shown to be effective beyond a single study site, having a positive impact across geographic and organisational boundaries, and across levels of care (primary, secondary, tertiary and post-acute) The integrated approach puts the focus on synergies between both methodological approaches and avoids improvement work being reduced to the use of a decontextualised toolkit
A prerequisite of the Person-centred Practice Framework is ‘knowing self’ (McCance and McCormack, 2021). ‘Knowing self’ includes being aware of our own values and beliefs, and is essential for authentic facilitation. Active learning supports the development of this awareness as it can enable a deeper understanding of our perceptions, emotions, values and beliefs (Dewing and Lynch, 2021). According to those authors, the methodology of active learning has six principles, one of which is: ‘In-depth drawing on the primary senses (including seeing, noticing and observing), and multiple social intelligences’ (2021, p 270). I first became aware of the concept of multiple intelligences a year ago and this article will focus first on what multiple intelligences are and why they are useful to consider. Following this, I will share how I am discovering which of the intelligences I favour and how I can use them to develop knowledge. Finally, I will consider what changes I have made so far.
Background: CAKE, an interactive resource to promote individual and team wellbeing and effectiveness through storytelling was co-designed with community nurses in 2020. In Phase 1 of this project, CAKE comprised seven slices that guided teams through a process of connecting, storytelling, reflecting and action planning to promote wellbeing. It was developed in response to an increasing awareness of psychological harm experienced by nurses and other healthcare professionals. Levels of stress in the workplace are currently contributing to problems with recruitment and retention, and a lack of resources have impacted on practitioners’ wellbeing, and their ability to be compassionate caregivers and to contribute to healthful teams. Aim: Phase 2 of the project sought to: 1) develop facilitators of CAKE; 2) pilot test the prototype CAKE resource in a range of contexts; and 3) create a digital version of CAKE. Methods: An evaluation approach to pilot testing, using multiple methods of data collection, involved 130 health and social care practitioners at 17 sites across the UK. Eight facilitator support sessions, underpinned by the Critical Ally model were offered and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: The findings revealed two overarching themes: facilitating CAKE and experiencing CAKE. In the former, three themes emerged: preparing for CAKE, trying CAKE and embedding CAKE. The latter had two themes: giving it a go and culture change. Following the study, the number of CAKE slices was increased from seven to eight by separating reflection and action planning, and minor amendments were made around spelling and grammar. Conclusion: We propose CAKE as a novel resource to promote individual and team wellbeing and effectiveness in health and social care teams. CAKE users acknowledge the challenges in creating space to use the resource, but when it is implemented teams embed practices that create healthful teams. As facilitators use CAKE, they develop their facilitation skills but they require preparation and support. Implications for practice: Taking time out to use CAKE can improve individual and team wellbeing and effectiveness Using CAKE supports the growth of gentle facilitation practices within teams CAKE has the potential to develop teams in which collective leadership is the norm Successful implementation of CAKE is dependent on support from managers and a culture that prioritises wellbeing
Background: Internationally, the development of person-centred healthcare services is of strategic importance. Healthcare education has the potential to contribute to this agenda by preparing the future workforce as person-centred practitioners. However, there is a lack of clarity about how to design, deliver and evaluate curricula to support person-centred learning and practice cultures. Aim: This article sets out to report on the methodological approach used to distil the key components of a Person-centred Curriculum Framework, and to critically evaluate the implications of this approach for curriculum development. Methods: The McKinsey 7S methodology underpinned this project. A multiphase, mixed methods design was used to synthesise evidence on the components of a person-centred curriculum framework. The eight design stages included an e-survey, telephone interviews, and multiple national and international stakeholder engagement events. Responses were translated into English and synthesised using an adapted directed content analysis approach. Through the stakeholder engagement events, evidence was then integrated until consensus was reached on the key curricular components. Results: A total of 24 academics from 10 countries across five disciplines took part in an e-survey, with responses in two languages. In addition, 31 telephone interviews were conducted with learners, educators and policymakers across six countries, in four languages. The survey and interview evidence was synthesised and presented in tabular form for each of the 7S categories, including a curriculum statement mapped to evidence exemplars, together with a set of thematic actions to assist programme teams in operationalising the Person-centred Curriculum Framework. Conclusions: The project, using a multiphase, mixed methods design, underpinned by the 7S methodology, combined with a multiplicity of stakeholder perspectives, provided a rigorous approach to developing a Person-centred Curriculum Framework that is philosophically and methodologically aligned with person-centred principles.
Background: Existing research supports the effectiveness of person-centred practices in working with persons with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities, but less clear is the influence of workplace factors on the implementation and quality of person-centred practices. Aims: This article explores the influence of workplace factors on job satisfaction and on the implementation and quality of person-centred practices in healthcare agencies that provide home- and community-based services through a Medicaid waiver in Mississippi, a state in the southeastern United States. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to collect data via online surveys to explore the interrelationships among person-centred workplaces, job satisfaction and person-centred practices. Results: Path analysis reveals that a person-centred workplace influences both skill implementation and person-centred processes. Job satisfaction was significantly correlated to skill implementation and person-centred processes in bivariate analysis but was not detected in the path model. Conclusion: This study suggests that organisations may improve the provision of person-centred practices by investing in policies that create a person-centred workplace. Implications for practice: A person-centred workplace environment is a critical factor that influences person-centred practices and job satisfaction among employees Adapting practices to be person-centred should occur at every level of an organisation Social care organisations should maintain continuous assessments of person-centredness to ensure a person-centred workplace where employees consistently use person-centred skills and processes with the people whom they support
Background: bold (Bringing Out Leaders in Dementia), funded by the Life Changes Trust, is a creative and innovative social leadership project for people in Scotland living with dementia. Aim: A key part of bold is the bold programme, which takes a person-centred focus to help people empower themselves to flourish through creative methods and personal development. bold brings together people with a diverse range of skills and abilities on an equal footing in a safe and supported space, in which they can explore themselves as ‘social leaders’. Methods: An interdisciplinary team from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University collaborated with creative artists from the outset to develop the programme that uses a mixture of arts-based methods to encourage creativity, innovation and imagination to explore and develop leadership potential. These include creative writing, working with clay and collage, improvisation, movement, reflective walking, singing and song writing, voice and breathing, and performing arts. In this article we provide an overview of the programme’s design from its outset and of how the creative methods have been adapted and developed to work online as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Results: A brief overview shows how bold has evolved beyond the online programme and how those who take part continue to find ways to create spaces for people living with dementia to flourish as they become part of the bold community. Implications for practice: A programme for encouraging and empowering individuals to flourish requires a reflective and person-centred approach in a safe and supported environment Successful outcomes depend on multiple factors, including careful programme delivery planning, good facilitation, and commitment and belief from those who take part An inclusive and accessible approach is beneficial when using creative methods for people living with dementia
Background: There is increasing awareness that we must engage with decolonising physiotherapy curricula to respect plurality of knowledge and become more consistent with global priorities towards humanising healthcare. Aim: By reflecting on our discomfort and vulnerabilities, we strove to understand and engage in decolonising the physiotherapy curriculum. Through this we hope to motivate others and contribute to this important transformation. Conclusions: Using Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, we reflected on our struggle with our disorienting dilemmas regarding the need to engage in decolonising the physiotherapy curriculum. We have become alert to insecurities about our knowledge and ability to engage sensitively in the necessary conversations. As we progress towards ‘full’ transformation, we have concluded that we must take action to generate change while continuing to learn and reflect. Implications for practice: Decolonising curricula is necessary to humanise healthcare, with more value accorded to the plurality of knowledge and global experiences The journey towards decolonising is destabilising and relies on humility in moving from ‘being the expert’ to accepting a return to novice status Creating brave spaces where we trust one another’s motivations, forgive ourselves and others as we fumble with the conversations, and are compassionate about the discomfort can facilitate these transformations
Background: As nurses, midwives and allied health professionals deliver the majority of direct patient care, they are well placed to lead research and generate evidence to inform practice. Aims: To consider how best to implement the findings of The Whitehouse Report, to reflect on the development of a nursing, midwifery and allied health professions research and evaluation service at a UK NHS foundation trust, and to understand the mechanisms that contribute to change. Methods: Using the principles of change theory we developed four theories of change, underpinned by a logic model, to consider the sequence of events and the expected results. The impact of the new service on workforce capacity and capability and the mechanisms of change were considered retrospectively over a two-year period between 2019 and 2021. Surveys, interviews, field notes and data regarding a number of projects were collected and reviewed. Results: Research, quality improvement and service evaluation activity have increased across all nursing, midwifery and allied health professions at our hospital trust. Six underpinning core values and seven practical mechanisms to implement these values were identified as successful drivers of change for the service. Discussion: The intentional development of a network of teams, individuals and patients was fundamental to building capacity, capability and confidence among staff. Enablers to the increase in research activity included using role modeling, inspiration and perseverance to make visible the value of nurses, midwives and allied health professionals in leading research-based care. Preconceived ideas of who ‘should’ do research challenged the positive culture of critical inquiry for the benefit of patients, service improvements and celebration of existing work. Strategies to support research activities across the professions require vision, time, infrastructure and buy-in at micro, meso and macro levels, as well as a sustained effort from those directly involved. Conclusions: It would be beneficial to encourage bespoke approaches to help staff translate ideas into practice-based projects as part of capacity, capability and confidence building for research across the clinical workforce. Audit, quality improvement and evaluation activities can lead directly to an increase in research engagement, involvement and leadership among nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, as well as supporting recruitment and retention. Future research could explore whether this approach would be replicable and effective in other healthcare organisations or systems. Implications for practice: Shared values are essential to forge progress in research activities led by nurses, midwives and allied health professionals The use of audit, quality improvement and service evaluation approaches are effective in increasing research activity within organisations A number of approaches to growing the capacity, capability and confidence of staff should be considered within the organisational context. One approach does not fit all Research-active organisations have better outcomes for patients, whether or not the patients are part of a trial. Increasing the capacity and capability of staff means more research is likely to be undertaken through a nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals lens
In this special issue of the IPDJ we continue to present the work of the Erasmus+ project focusing on the development of a pan-European person-centred healthcare curriculum framework (Grant number: 2019-1-UK01-KA203-061970). In the previous special issue we presented the background to the project and the first stage of the work undertaken (a meta-synthesis of curricula, a review of developments in person-centred healthcare, and the philosophical and pedagogical principles to underpin a curriculum framework). In this follow-up special issue we are delighted to present the outputs from the next phases of this work and for the first time, present the finalised curriculum framework. The following three articles collectively describe and reflect on the methodology used to engage with key stakeholders and review existing curricula, as well as presenting the Person-centred Curriculum Framework itself. Over the past three years, we have been engaged in a pan-European collaborative effort to gain a deeper understanding of perspectives on person-centredness and how these perspectives shape our approaches to educating the future healthcare workforce. It has been argued many times that there are as many views about and perspectives on person-centredness as there are approaches to implementing person-oriented approaches to healthcare systems. It is of no surprise therefore, that when it comes to curriculum models for person-centred education, variation dominates. For those of us involved in healthcare professional education, we know there is little agreement about curriculum theories, curriculum models, or indeed curriculum content, within and between the different professions. We know that curricula are influenced by a variety of factors that are unique to different professions and disciplines; by different ontological positions, and by different constructions of knowledge and the kinds of knowledge that are relevant to each profession. All these conditions shape curriculum development and delivery, and should not be undermined in any attempt to develop multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary models of learning. A person-centred approach to curriculum development is best summed up by this quote from one of the stakeholders in the work reported in this special issue: ‘… because it helps you take that stage further, because you’re not looking at what’s the latest treatment for diabetes. It’s looking at what’s the latest treatment that would work for my diabetes or the person in front of his diabetes, rather than saying, oh, well, the evidence points to do this, do that.’
I have had the privilege of reading Margreet van der Cingel’s 2022 book, Compassion, the Core Value in Person-centred Care, which is the result of a programme of research including a PhD and two empirical masters studies. The doctorate focused on three things: a theoretical and philosophical exploration of compassion; a study of compassion in the history of nursing; and a study of contemporary daily nursing practices. The empirical masters studies explored the role of compassion in the development of the professional nursing identity, and the strategies of novice nurses for developing and sustaining compassion (van der Cingel, 2022, p 4).
I have had the privilege of reading Margreet van der Cingel’s 2022 book, Compassion, the Core Value in Person-centred Care, which is the result of a programme of research including a PhD and two empirical masters studies. The doctorate focused on three things: a theoretical and philosophical exploration of compassion; a study of compassion in the history of nursing; and a study of contemporary daily nursing practices. The empirical masters studies explored the role of compassion in the development of the professional nursing identity, and the strategies of novice nurses for developing and sustaining compassion (van der Cingel, 2022, p 4).
