Suffering is an inevitable reality that student nurses may be unprepared to witness. The 14-week college course, Understanding Suffering, was developed to help students better understand the suffering experience. Content for the course was drawn from nursing, sociological, and theological perspectives. Students scored significantly higher on a post-course evaluation of empathy and stated they felt better prepared to intervene in difficult clinical situations involving suffering. Course development, assignments, and evaluation are described in the article.
Cassell, E. (1982). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine . New England Journal of Medicine, 306, 639-645.
2.
Cooper, J., & Barnett, M. (2005). Aspects of caring for dying patients which cause anxiety to first year students nurses. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 11, 423-430.
3.
DiBlasi, Z., Harkness, E., Ernst, E., Georgiou, A., & Kleijnen, J. (2001). Influence of context effects on health outcomes: a systematic review. Lancet, 357, 757-762.
4.
Duffy, J. (2005). Want to graduate nurses who care? Assessing nursing students' caring competencies. In M. H. Oermann & K. T. Heinrich (Eds.), Annual Review of Nursing Education (pp. 59-76). New York: Springer.
5.
Eifried, S. (2003). Bearing witness to suffering: The lived experience of nursing students. Journal of Nursing Education, 42(2), 59-67.
6.
Ferrell, B. (1996). Suffering. Boston: Jones & Bartlett.
7.
Fields, S.K., Hojat, M., Gonnella, J.S., Mangione, S., Kane, G., & Magee, M. (2004). Comparisons of nurses and physicians on an operational measure of empathy. Evaluation and the Health Professions , 27, 80-94.
8.
Frankl, V. (1959). Man's search for meaning. New York: Simon & Schuster.
9.
Hardee, J.T. (2003). An overview of empathy. Permanente Journal, 7(4), 51-54.
10.
Hojat, M., Mangione, S., Nasca, T.J., Cohen, M.J.M., Gonnella, J.S., Erdmann, J.B., et al. (2001). The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy: Development and preliminary psychometric data. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61, 349-365.
11.
Jameton, A. (1983, June). Panel Discussion at the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute in Nursing Ethics, Medford, MA.
12.
Johnson, A., & Jackson, D. (2005). Using the arts and humanities to support learning about loss, suffering and death. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 11, 438-443.
13.
Kahn, D.L., & Steeves, R.H. (1996). An understanding of suffering grounded in clinical practice and research. In B. Ferrell's (Ed.), Suffering (pp. 3-27). Boston: Jones & Bartlett.
14.
Kim, S., Kaplowitz, S., & Johnston, M. (2004). The effects of physician empathy on patient satisfaction and compliance. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 27, 237-251.
15.
Larson, E.B. (2005). Clinical empathy as emotional labor in the patient-physician relationship. JAMA, 293, 1100-1105.
16.
Latina, E. (2006). The nurse as a witness to suffering. Unpublished manuscript, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH.
17.
Lee-Hsieh, J. (2003). An educational strategy to enhance caring in nursing students in an associate degree program. International Journal for Human Caring, 7(1), 27-33.
18.
Makarov, A. (2006). Witness to Suffering Project. Unpublished manuscript, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH.
19.
Merry, J. (2007). Witness to Suffering Project. Unpublished manuscript, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH.
20.
Morse, J. (2001). Toward a praxis theory of suffering. Advances in Nursing Science, 24(1), 47-59.
21.
Pettigrew, J. (1990). Intensive nursing care: The ministry of presence . Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America, 2, 503-510.
22.
Potter, M.L. (2006). Loss, suffering, bereavement, and grief. In M. L. Matzo & D. W. Sherman (Eds.), Palliative care nursing (pp. 273-316). New York: Springer.
23.
Reed, F.C. (2003). Suffering and illness: Insights for caregivers . Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis .
24.
Schaefer, K. (2003). Caring behaviors of advanced practice nursing students. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 21(1), 36-51.
25.
Sherman, D.W. (2006). Spirituality and culture as domains of qualitative palliative care. In M. L. Matzo & D. W. Sherman (Eds.), Palliative care nursing (pp. 3-49). New York: Springer .
26.
Smith, R. (1996). Theological perspectives. In B. R. Ferrell (Ed.), Suffering (pp. 159-171). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
27.
Van Rooyen, D., Laing, R., & Kotze, W. (2005). Accompaniment needs of nursing students related to the dying patient. Curationis, 28(4), 31-39.
