Strengthening a praxis of suffering: teaching-learning practices.

Suffering involves the loss of acceptable meaning and nourishing connection. How nurses are present to those who suffer makes a significant difference. In a context where sustained engagement with the sufferer is crucial but often neglected, important questions for educators arise. These include how to cultivate moral courage and compassion among our students and how to select philosophical and pedagogical approaches that can guide teaching and learning. This article presents the challenges raised in a graduate-level nursing course aimed at advancing a praxis of suffering as well as our experience integrating interpretive phenomenological and narrative-based approaches.