Practice and life contexts that facilitate experiencing the value of compassion

Abstract

In order to assess compassionate and non-compassionate experiences that students of health professions of optometry, nursing and medicine have lived, 15 participants from the last semesters of El Bosque and Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia, were interviewed during February and March 2020. The results of their narratives are presented, which were shared with generosity and interest in learning the value of compassion. They sincerely and critically expressed their views about their experiences in the context of practice and in their daily life. The narratives were analyzed in categories of humanized and dehumanized treatment, which reflect characteristics related to alterity, empathy, and compassion. In the same way, the identified learning sources and their preferences and suggestions for learning about compassion were considered as important inputs in the design of a didactic strategy of compassion for health professionals.