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Background: Lack of compassion is claimed to result in poor and sometimes harmful nursing care. Developing strategies to encourage compassionate caring behaviours are important because there is evidence to suggest a connection between having a moral orientation such as compassion and resulting caring behaviour in practice. Objective: This study aimed to articulate a clearer understanding of compassionate caring via nurse educators' selection and use of published texts and film. Methodology: This study employed discourse analysis. Participants and research context: A total of 41 nurse educators working in universities in the United Kingdom (n = 3), Ireland (n = 1) and Canada (n = 1) completed questionnaires on the narratives that shaped their understanding of care and compassion. Findings: The desire to understand others and how to care compassionately characterised educators' choices. Most narratives were examples of kindness and compassion. A total of 17 emphasised the importance of connecting with others as a central component of compassionate caring, 10 identified the burden of caring, 24 identified themes of abandonment and of failure to see the suffering person and 15 narratives showed a discourse of only showing compassion to those 'deserving' often understood as the suffering person doing enough to help themselves. Discussion: These findings are mostly consistent with work in moral philosophy emphasising the particular or context and perception or vision as well as the necessity of emotions. The narratives themselves are used by nurse educators to help explicate examples of caring and compassion (or its lack). Conclusion: To feel cared about people need to feel 'visible' as though they matter. Nurses need to be alert to problems that may arise if their 'moral vision' is influenced by ideas of desert and how much the patient is doing to help himself or herself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on an evaluation of student satisfaction after undertaking blended learning postgraduate programmes in a school of nursing and midwifery. There is little data available in Ireland that considers the student experience of online learning in this student cohort. An anonymous pre-validated survey was sent to students after completion of their respective programme of study. Satisfaction with undertaking a programme through blended learning revealed that students are most satisfied with the flexible nature of programme delivery, the communication processes between them and instructors and the overall learning achieved in relation to the development of their personal and professional skills. Students indicated that they are less satisfied with the communication associated with assessment and feedback procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of type 1 diabetes is on the rise, and it has become one of the most common chronic childhood conditions globally. Caring for children who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes has been shown to contribute to parental distress, owing to the chronic nature of the condition. In recent years, social support groups have been established to provide parents with an environment in which to share their experiences and advice. This article reports on the findings from an ethnographic study of a social support group in Ireland for parents who have children with type 1 diabetes, aiming to gain an understanding of the experiences of parents outside of the hospital setting, and the significance of these social support groups in diabetes care delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]