Qualities, teaching, and measurement of compassion in nursing: A systematic review

• Published in: Nurse education today 2018-04, Vol.63, p.50-58
• Main Authors: Durkin, Mark, Gurbutt, Russell, Carson, Jerome
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Altruism; Clinical training; Compassion; Compassionate care; Evidence Based Practice; Evidence based research; Evidence-based nursing; Instruments; Literature Reviews; Measurement; Measures; Medical education; Nurse patient relationships; Nurses; Nursing; Nursing care; Nursing education; Nursing Students; Patients; Psychometrics; Qualities; Students; Sympathy; Systematic review; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Training
• ISSN: 0260-6917; 1532-2793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2018.01.025

Compassion has global implications for nursing care. However, failure to provide compassionate care is reported by patients. Nursing and nurse education have been scrutinized about the impact training can have on student's compassion. Furthermore, there is a paucity of standardised measures to assess levels of nurses' compassion. To identify (1) the qualities of a compassionate nurse, (2) how compassion is taught to nursing students, and (3) the instruments used to measure compassion in nursing. Systematic literature review. CINHAL, EBSCO, SCOPUS, PubMed, Ovid Nursing. A systematic review of published research was conducted with. No limitations in the search timeframe were used. Articles were included if they were (1) nurses (2) nursing students (3) educators and (4) patient groups, (5) written in English. Articles that were, peer reviewed, research articles, or articles grounded in evidence based practice were also included. Fourteen studies (6 UK, 3 USA, 2 Canada, 1 Korea, 1 Thailand, and 1 Netherlands) identified eleven characteristics of a compassionate nurse. Two UK and one Australian study investigated teaching compassion to nursing students. Four articles reported on instruments used to measure compassion in nursing. Three were American, and one Korean. This review identified only 21 papers overall. Several qualities of a compassionate nurse were found. In addition, few studies have explored how compassion is taught to nursing students. Also, there are a limited number of instruments for measuring compassion in nursing. More research is needed in nurse education to develop a teaching approach and psychometric measure for nurses' compassion. •Compassion can be characterised into an internationally recognised set of specific behaviours.•There is a dearth in interventions aimed at teaching compassion to nursing students.•Instruments that measures for compassion in nursing are limited to four globally and are non-existent in the UK.•Assesment of these charcteristics in nurse education and their impact on compassionate practice is recommended.•Additionally, these characteristics could also be used to develop a new compassion scale for nurses.