Background: Teaching nursing students about the principles and practical application of person-centered care is an essential yet challenging component of nursing education. Integrating patients as teachers to share their personal stories of maternity care can elicit positive outcomes toward students achieving course objectives.
Objectives: To determine how the educational experience of having patients as teachers in the classroom could influence students' awareness of patients' perceptions of their maternity care, delivering person-centered care and the roles of nursing in their future practice.
Design: Retrospective qualitative study of student reflections.
Settings: Reproductive health course within a BSN program.
Participants: Ninety-nine second semester BSN student reflections.
Methods: Two course faculty and a qualitative nurse researcher conducted a thematic content analysis of written student reflections.
Results: Three primary themes emerged from the students' reflections of hearing patient and family advisors describe their maternity experiences: 1) awareness of the impact of nursing practice on patient and family well-being, 2) awareness of personal biases and emotions about difficulties in maternity care, and 3) appreciation to hear from patients directly as part of didactic coursework.
Conclusions: Including patients as teachers is an enhanced method to aid nursing students in understanding the humanistic and impactful roles of nursing in the clinical setting.
Keywords: BSN nursing education; Empathy; Nursing; Patient-centered care.
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.