Reflecting Through Letter Writing and Visual Representations

Teaching is a journey that draws upon an educator’s creativity to meet the emerging challenges of the undulating waves of experiences. Like sailors, navigating the sea, we as nursing educators engage in a journey of introspection to create a shared reflective space that fosters dialogue. Using letter writing as a reflective device, we wrote letters to each other and shared our thoughts and ideas on the nature of compassion, relational practice, and transitioning from nursing student to nurse in our teaching practice. We used the metaphor of sailing to make sense of our experience. Our old photos became a way to re-present our reflective insights. For us, compassion emerges from helping students experience their relational connection to their patients. As students become competent in their way to nurse, the intentionality of their care becomes focused, triggering their compassionate practice and opening the path to their transition into being a nurse.