How an Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum Influenced My Understanding and Attitude of Self-Compassion

Abstract

Undergraduate nursing students are experiencing high levels of perceived stress and depression, while learning to give compassion within complex clinical environments. They may benefit from learning a coping strategy to manage the difficult emotions that arise from their clinical learning experiences, which they can sustain in their practice as a registered nurse (RN). Self-compassion (SC) practice involves self-kindness and being mindful to one’s difficult emotions, while recognizing suffering is part of the shared human experience — our common humanity. Using a Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) methodology, I explore various life experiences, before and during undergraduate nursing education (UNE), and currently as a RN, to uncover how UNE shaped my discovery of SC. My story — written with a vulnerable heart — includes vignettes, poetry, and critical reflections supported by scholarly literature. Methods involved document analysis, unobtrusive persistent observation, mindful SC meditation, including the SPN phases: pre-search, me-search, re-search, and we-search. The transformative learning theory guided my introspective analysis revealing SC was not explicitly acknowledged, taught, or recognized during UNE, nor was SC understood to be connected to compassion —the foundation of the nursing profession. Through exploring past trauma, I discovered the aching need to find SC within my life as a nursing student and now RN, to promote regulating difficult emotions, decrease perfectionistic behaviours and underpin my current nursing practice. SC reflection and modelling by educators and clinical instructors may normalize and inspire the practice of SC within UNE to enhance professional leadership qualities and develop a sustainable artful nursing practice.