Growing gratitude in undergraduate nursing students: Applying findings from social and psychological domains to nursing education.

Millennial students are often characterized as technology focused multitaskers, yet young nursing students are expected to focus on and thoughtfully engage with the person at the center of their caring efforts. Developing gratitude practices requires quiet contemplation and focus. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude in millennial nursing students may be one avenue to address concerns surrounding the provision of relationship based person-centered care by young nurses. In other disciplines, gratitude work has been studied extensively and is associated with several positive outcomes. Assignments included in most nursing programs can easily be modified to include a gratitude focus. Examples of gratitude assignments and the student reflection of these assignments are included here as a call for nurse educators to further study this concept.