Lise-Lotte Ozolins

Intertwining caring science, caring practice and caring education from a lifeworld perspective-two contextual examples.

This article describes how caring science can be a helpful foundation for caring practice and what kind of learning support that can enable the transformation of caring science into practice. The lifeworld approach is fundamental for both caring and learning. This will be illustrated in two examples from research that show the potential for promoting health and well-being as well as the learning process. One example is from a caring context and the other is from a learning context. In this article, learning and caring are understood as parallel processes. We emphasize that learning cannot be separated from life and thus caring and education is intertwined with caring science and life. The examples illustrate how an understanding of the intertwining can be fruitful in different contexts. The challenge is to implant a lifeworld-based approach on caring and learning that can lead to strategies that in a more profound way have the potential to strengthen the persons health and learning processes.

A nursing student-run health clinic – an innovative project based on reflective lifeworld-led care and education

Nursing students need support in order to be able to intertwine caring science theory with practice through reflection. In this theoretical paper a nursing student-run health clinic based on lifeworld led learning and caring is described and propounded as providing such support. The student nurses are offered possibilities for integrating theoretical and practical knowledge by the re-location of parts of the theoretical courses to this innovative learning environment. In applying a phenomenological attitude, both in the learning situation and in the caring situation, the natural (unreflective) attitude is challenged in order for the student nurses to gain a deeper and broader understanding of caring science within their caring practice and vice versa. This means that the nursing students can develop a reflective caring approach that is important in order to become both sensitive and sensible nurses. This paper can be supportive for nurse educators in developing nursing education to meet the needs of the modern society. Our perspective on health, well-being and reflective learning can also inspire persons who work in clinical practice and with health promotion.