Mindfulness & self-compassion in nursing education: Promoting compassionate relational-centred nursing care.

The fellowship focus was to continue to build knowledge and expertise required to support the integration of strategies to enhance compassion for self and others in nursing students and faculty. The need to support the emotional and physical well-being of nursing professionals and students is critical during this time of a global pandemic.  As evidenced within the review of literature mindfulness and self-compassion are empirically supported approaches that enhance coping, resilience, emotional intelligence, enhanced relational skills, motivation and mastery of skills while decreasing anxiety, depression, fear of failure and fear of evaluation (Hagerman, et al., 2020). 

The benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion extend beyond psychological and academic support, it has also been found to support nurses in providing relational-centred compassionate care. To minimize the effect of compassion fatigue nurses must first be able to care for themselves and recognize their own suffering in order to be able to see the suffering in others and respond to that suffering with compassion. It is for this reason important to identify evidence-informed approaches to teaching and learning that answer the question of what knowledge and skills are needed to be compassionate? (Hartirick Doane & Varcoe, 2015). To answer this question three learning objectives were developed.

Overall learning goal (objectives). The fellowship goal was to enhance my capacity for developing mindfulness and self-compassion from leadership perspective and gain expertise in curriculum development related to these concepts. The experience was framed within two theoretical lenses. The first lens was Hartrick Doane and Varcoe’s (2015) five ontological capability of relational inquiry and how these inform curricular innovations. The second was that of Germer and Neff’s (2019) mindful self-compassion (MSC) program and how mindfulness-based self-compassion training can be used to support academic success and compassion for self and others. 

Learning objective 1. To continue to build on my knowledge of mindful self-compassion and relational practice. Hartrick Doane and Varcoe’s (2015) recognize that to be compassionate towards others we need to be first compassionate towards ourselves. This focus on how self-compassion is essential in preparing for compassionate practice, along with Germer & Neff’s (2019) MSC program, allows for the development of a nursing centred relational-inquiry approach to compassionate practice. A steering committee comprised of faculty and students from the PN and BScN programs was formed to examine how MSC could be integrated into undergraduate nursing curriculum to support relational-centred compassionate care. The working group committee was guided by Dr. Louela Manankil-Rankin, Dr. Jasna K. Schwind and Michele Chaban. The impact of mindfulness and self-compassion will be evaluated at a later date using the Knowledge to Action Framework as a way of supporting knowledge translation into practice. 

Learning objective 2. The second learning objective for this fellowship was to apply the knowledge gained from the 2019 to 2020 fellowship to inform the creation of a faculty development MSC workshop series. A series of 8 mindful self-compassion faculty development workshops were developed and delivered over an 8-week period to full and part-time faculty using Zoom. Finlay et al., (2016) identified that online self-compassion training was effective in “increasing self-compassion and reducing psychological distress” (p. 12). Though the findings by Finlay et al., (2016) are preliminary, it shows promise for using technology, specifically online learning, to enhance mindfulness and self-compassion in faculty. The 8 MSC workshops developed as part of this fellowship included core meditations, informal practices, experiential exercises and discussions on how these strategies can be integrated into day-to-day life and the teaching/learning experience. 

Learning objective 3. The third learning objective was to apply my knowledge of mindful self-compassion and expertise in technology enhanced learning to support MSC in faculty through the delivery of a web-based resources. The identified deliverables included the development of an evidence-based technology enhanced resources to inform teaching/learning of mindfulness-based self-compassion practices.  This learning objective was met with the creation of three web-based resources. These resources included a: 1) Mindful self-compassion teaching/learning repository; 2) mindful self-compassion workshop intranet site (objectives, readings, homework) to support the series of 8 faculty focused MSC workshops; and 3) an internet site to showcase the work being conducted by the MSC working group and the program focus on compassionate care.