Learner Workbook for Cultivating Compassion in Nursing

This Learner Workbook is designed to be a companion resource for educators and students using Cultivating Compassion in Nursing: From Learner to Leader. Filled with a variety of discussion questions and activities that relate to the case studies and other material in the main book, this workbook includes writing exercises and other assignments that touch on nature and the arts. This inspiring resource will tap students’ curiosity and creativity as they reflect on the concept of compassion.

About the textbook: Cultivating Compassion in Nursing: From Learner to Leader reframes compassion as more than an innate trait, presenting it as a teachable, measurable, and sustainable professional skill. Drawing on nursing science, neuroscience, leadership research, and real-world case studies, Tim Cunningham demonstrates how compassion strengthens human connection while supporting resilience in today’s healthcare environments.

Through evidence-based research, reflective exercises, storytelling, art, and companion learning tools, readers learn to:

• Develop compassion as a professional competency
• Build resilience and meaningful connections
• Address cultural and organizational barriers to compassionate care
• Lead with humanity in complex healthcare settings
• Foster sustainable cultures of compassion across care environments

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Chapter 1: Compassion in Abundance
• Chapter 2: Compassionate Threads Across Nursing History
• Chapter 3: Compassion: The Muscle
• Chapter 4: It Starts With You: Self-Compassion
• Chapter 5: Copycat Compassion: Our Mirror Neurons
• Chapter 6: The Enemies of Compassion
• Chapter 7: What if We Think of Compassion Like a Disease? The Epidemiology of Compassion
• Chapter 8: Thought to Practice: The Action of Compassion
• Chapter 9: Micro-dosing Compassion in the Classroom
• Chapter 10: Compassion in Challenging Settings
• Chapter 11: Compassion Practice Among Peers
• Chapter 12: Clock-in, Clock-out Compassion
• Chapter 13: Empathy Fatigue, Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Well-Being: Know Your Terms
• Chapter 14: Compassionate Professional Development
• Chapter 15: Compassion and AI: Collaboration Toward Flourishing
• Chapter 16: Compassion on the Agenda
• Chapter 17: Compassionate Crucial Conversations
• Chapter 18: Leading Compassionate Teams
• Chapter 19: Mentorship Matters
• Chapter 20: Compassionate Beginnings and Endings

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Cunningham, DrPH, MSN, RN, FAAN, is an internationally renowned keynote speaker, author, and expert on healthcare professional well-being. An emergency nurse by clinical practice who later became a hospital executive leader, co-founding an office of well-being that supported 35,000 staff at a large academic medical center, Cunningham has had the privilege to work closely with nurses and leaders globally to strengthen the ways we care for others.