The enrichment of nursing values through volunteerism

Abstract

Respect and empathy are among the vital values that are expected of nurses during nursing care. However, often nurses' lack of ability to show respect and empathy in the manner that they were expected to had often led to patients' and families' dissatisfactions in nursing care. Nursing educators today are faced with challenges on how to instill these nursing values in student nurses. Hours of lectures were seen as ineffective to instill them. Therefore it was recommended that the value of 'respect' and 'empathy' should be introduced to the 'future nurses' from the early stage of their course itself through experiential learning and reflective practice. An initiative was taken by the Institute of Health Sciences Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa'adatul Bolkiah, Universiti Brunei Darussalam Diploma in Health Sciences (Nursing) programme to teach these nursing values. A community outreach project was organised where students were asked to volunteer to carry out charity work for families who are in need of physical help. Students were then facilitated to reflect on their experience and share them with their colleagues. A focus group and descriptive surveys were used to find out students' understandings of 'respect' and 'empathy'. The aim of the studies is to find out if the the culture of 'volunteerism' enhances students' awareness of the importance of 'respect' and 'empathy' in nursing practice.