Early nurse leaders identified compassion as a characteristic of a “good” nurse, while contemporary nurses identified caring as the single most important attribute of a nurse. If nursing accepts this premise, it is important to gather baseline data from applicants. Admission essays were analyzed for themes to determine how students described caring and compared to Sadler’s (1997) concept analysis of caring. Students described beginning levels of caring and drew relationships between caring and nursing. Essays may provide one method to garner baseline data, which can be used to facilitate the development of caring in students.

Supervision in clinical placements provides a multidimensional learning context for student nurses and their supervisors. This study reports that students ask for more time, competencies, and supportive relationships with supervisors. The students seek to form their identity as nurses through participating in practice and clinical work. They create identities through learning from experiences, skill development, dialogues, and reflections. It is necessary to revitalize supervisors’ roles, competencies, assessment strategies, and skills in clinical supervision. Research gives reasons to evolve and implement new models that accentuate reflection and transformation to facilitate caring in clinical practice, for both students and supervisors.

The purpose of this article is to make connections between caring and the support that occurs among nurses who are making an educational journey and who are in practice. The authors believe that webs of caring and support are formed, which make a stressful journey in higher education and practice tolerable. As faculty members it is imperative that we encourage this support and caring in our students and in each other. Interpretive themes originating from doctoral dissertation studies and lived experiences of being in a writing circle form the foundation of this article.

This paper explores caring within the context of healthcare access in vulnerable populations. Specifically, it connects how underserved status heightens an individual’s vulnerability to poor health. With the increase of disparities and inequalities that exist in the healthcare delivery system, implementation of caring and caring theory are examined as a plausible means to ameliorate the impact of inadequate healthcare coverage. Halldorsdottir’s (1996) theory of caring and uncaring encounters, within nursing and healthcare, from the patient’s perspective frames the discussion.