Patients are vital for student learning. However, research has primarily focused on student nurse learning from a student or supervisor perspective; few studies have investigated patient perspectives. This study examines student care practice for patients in acute psychiatric day care. The aim was to describe patients’ experiences of care by student nurses in a psychiatric education unit, a collaboration between the clinic and academia. Data were collected through 17 lifeworld interviews with patients, of which 10 also included observations. Data have been analysed for meanings using reflective, lifeworld research (RLR). The findings reveal that the encounters involve an interactive process of giving and receiving, providing students with both health opportunities and risks. The findings can further be described by the following constituents: exposed and vulnerable; responsibility to support; the importance of accessibility; reciprocity; and engagement that evokes the desire to live a life with dignity. In a patient–student community, there are prerequisites for proper caring. Patient health seems to be positively affected when patients are involved in both their own care and student learning.

This paper highlights how caring and learning interact and become an intertwined phenomenon. The analysis of the research findings from two studies, in which the interaction between caring and learning in two educational units was investigated, has been guided by a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach grounded in a lifeworld-oriented phenomenology. The analysis procedure was concluded in a synthesis of the interaction between caring and learning in a Dedicated Educational Unit (DEU) and a didactic method inspired by a lifeworld educational perspective has been developed.

The results show that through trust and genuine meetings between patients and students caring and learning can converge and be intertwined. Both students and patients take an active role in the health process as well as the learning process. In order to achieve an intertwining process qualified supervision, care managers who take responsibility for a caring and learning environment and a consensus between the nursing school and the healthcare organization is required.

The didactic method that can support the intertwining of caring and learning consists of three themes; genuine meetings, sensitivity for the patient's story and reflection in interaction. These themes are tools for the supervision.

When students learn caring during clinical practice, the usual point of departure is thatcaring and learning coexist, as separate and parallel phenomena. There is, however, a needto study how caring and learning relate to one another, as well as when and how theyconverge. The aim of this dissertation is to describe how caring and learning converge inthe encounters between students and patients, in a dedicated educational unit withinpsychiatric care, as experienced by students, patients, and supervisors. Describing howsupervisory support can facilitate this is another aim. A reflective lifeworld approach basedon phenomenological philosophy has been applied. Data were collected through interviews,participant observations with follow-up interviews, and narrative diaries.The result shows that caring and learning converge in those encounters between studentsand patients which are characterized by reciprocity, wherein the patient’s narrative is thepoint of departure, complemented by the student’s listening and inquiring attitude. It ishere, that the desire for and pursuit of health and understanding, give the reciprocalinteraction power. The common desire of those involved to know, to become accustomedto the new and unfamiliar, as well as the presence of a feeling of responsibility for oneanother, create questions which in turn create opportunities wherein students and patientsare available to one another.The dissertation shows that learning in a caring context can be complex. Despite theirbeing prerequisites for one another, competition and conflicts can occur when the caringand learning perspectives are not equally attended to. When they are placed counter to oneanother, there is a risk that reciprocal interaction is hindered, which can cause loneliness forall involved. For convergence to occur most propitiously, those involved must exist in acaring and learning togetherness. Responsible and present supervisors are needed, whocreate possibilities for the perspectives to converge through maintenance and monitoring, sothat caring and learning receive equal space.A didactic concept has been developed based on the dissertation’s result, focusing on themeaning of creating forums where students’, patients’, and supervisors’ caringconsiderations and reflections can intertwine.

Scientific knowledge is characterized by abstract descriptions and structures which are not identical to the lived reality. Scientific knowledge cannot directly be applied on the lived existence, without being transformed and adjusted to the individual’s very complex lifeworld. Learning in caring contexts is an encounter between the scientific knowledge of caring and the learner’s lifeworld. This encounter needs a support that has the potential to bring caring science to life and to start an intertwining process with the lifeworld that creates embodied knowledge. Lifeworld didactics are built on an approach about learning as an individual process and that learning takes its point of departure in the learner’s previous experiences, which accompanies the learning process. The challenges within lifeworld didactics is to be open and sensitive to the learner’s lifeworld and with tact support the development of a reflective attitude in the learning process. Lifeworld didactics strategies are of crucial importance in different caring contexts. This paper presents three lifeworld led phenomenological research projects that have focused on acquiring caring science knowledge in caring contexts, more precisely it is the encounter between caring science and the lifeworld. The research is within the framework of lifeworld didactics, but the three projects each have a special focus. The first illustrates how the learning and caring processes merge and become an intertwined phenomenon in nursing students’ learning. The research is carried out in Dedicated Educational Units (DEU), within psychiatric and orthopedic care. Three perspectives are illustrated in the project; that of the students, the supervisors and the patients. The overall aim is to develop a supervision model that has the potential to support the students’ learning processes as well as the patients’ caring processes. The second illustrates how the concepts ‘patient perspective’ and ‘patient participation’ can be implemented in a clinical setting for elderly patients in order to improve the quality of care. This project is inspired by Participatory Action Research and is built on collaboration between the university and the health care services. The aim is to develop reflective educational material in terms of filmed drama episodes, based on the result of two studies about elderly patients’ participation in team meetings. The third illustrates the perspective of lifeworld didactics in two phenomenological studies that focus on Students` learning in an encounter with patients and Students` learning on the way to becoming professional - supported by supervision in pairs of students. The findings show patterns of essential meanings that have specific significance in the art of supporting students` learning in clinical education. These are; the significance of responsibility, its extent and shape in relation to the supervisor’s ability to adopt a reflective supervising attitude and to be supportive enough but at the same time to not assume the responsibility. The learning process shows to be a challenge for students, where safety in pairs of students has a great significance when coping with the challenge to learn and develop.

Scientific knowledge is characterized by abstract descriptions and structures, which are not identical to the lived reality. Scientific knowledge cannot directly be applied on the lived existence, without being transformed and adjusted to the individual’s very complex lifeworld. Learning in caring contexts is an encounter between the scientific knowledge of caring and the learner’s lifeworld. This encounter needs a support that has the potential to bring caring science to life and to start an intertwining process with the lifeworld that creates embodied knowledge. Lifeworld didactics are built on an approach about learning as an individual process and that learning takes its point of departure in the learner’s previous experiences, which accompanies the learning process. The challenges within lifeworld didactics are to be open and sensitive to the learner’s lifeworld and with tact support the development of a reflective attitude in the learning process. Lifeworld didactics strategies are of crucial importance in different caring contexts. This symposium presents three lifeworld led phenomenological research projects that have focused on acquiring caring science knowledge in caring contexts, more precisely it is the encounter between caring science and the lifeworld. The research is within the framework of lifeworld didactics, but the three projects each have a special focus.

This research aims to deepen knowledge whether caring and learning are an intertwined phenomenon in Dedicated Educational Units (DEU). The context is psychiatric and orthopaedic care, and the research is based on caring science.

The research question is this: What characterizes the relationship between caring and learning in a DEU? This will be illuminated from three perspectives; the student, supervisor and patient perspectives.

The question for the student is this: What is it like to learn the nursing profession by caring for patients on a DEU? The question for the supervisor is this: What is it like to supervise nursing students on a DEU? And the final question is directed at the patient: What is it like to be cared for by nursing students in a DEU?

The underpinning philosophical and theoretical perspectives are lifeworld theory, caring science and its didactics.

The aim of this project is to develop a supervision model that views caring and learning as an intertwined concept with the potential to support students‟ learning processes as well as patients‟ caring processes.