Becoming Aware of Compassionate Care Through a Patient's Story: Reflections From First-Year Nursing Students.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how faculty members can use literature to teach first-year nursing students about compassionate care and the nursing role. A group of first-year nursing students wrote letters to the author of a book that details his experiences following a catastrophic motor vehicle accident. Thematic analysis of the letters revealed three major themes: Lessons about Compassion through Literature; Changing Personal, Professional, and Educational Perspectives; and Connecting to the Story on a Personal Level. The data was interpreted with the use of Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory (1997). The results of the study show that students' beliefs about the profession of nursing, the role of the nurse in providing compassionate care, and their own education, were transformed. Additionally, using literature was shown to be an effective teaching strategy.