Learning about human suffering in illness: the experience of nursing students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to comprehend what nursing students understand about human suffering in illness, and how they experience it during the Nursing Program. A qualitative study with content analysis was conducted. The data were collected through questionnaires with open-ended questions and interviews. The participants were 31 Nursing Students of a Public University in São Paulo, Brazil, who had agreed to participate in the study. The results disclosed four main categories: recognizing suffering, witnessing and living (nursing behaviors), responding to and reflecting on suffering. The conclusions show that the student recognizes sources that not only cause suffering in patients, but also in the families. The main learning source in the students´ experience about human suffering is the observation of the clinical nurses´ actions in the midst of suffering. The students identify behaviors in which the nurse may either get closer to the patient and family or apart from them; at the same time, when the students have the possibility of acting in suffering, they seek to do it in order to get closer to the patient and family. The study also revealed that suffering as a subject of study in the nursing program appears randomly, depending on the experience of the students in clinical practice, and that the students usually do not feel well prepared to deal with human suffering, indicating the need of theoretical-practical content that addresses specifically human suffering in nursing education.