Service-learning to strengthen humanized nursing practice:a mixed-methods study in undergraduate education

• Service-Learning supports empathy, reflection, and ethical awareness in nursing students. • This study integrates student, educator, and community organization perspectives. • Structured Service-Learning can be applied to strengthen humanized nursing education. Nursing education must prepare students for ethical, relational, and communicative dimensions of care that are not always achieved through traditional teaching. Service-learning (SL) integrates academic learning with community engagement and may strengthen humanized nursing practice. To evaluate the educational, ethical, and social impact of a structured SL program in undergraduate nursing education. A descriptive mixed-methods study was conducted between 2021 and 2024 in a second-year nursing module across three university campuses in northeastern Spain. Participants included 220 students, 14 lecturers, and eight patient organizations. Data were collected using institutional student questionnaires, the validated QaSLu-45 for educators, an adapted partnership-evaluation tool, and qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used. Students reported high satisfaction and strong links between theory and real-life illness experiences. Lecturers highlighted enhanced reflective capacity and ethical awareness. Community organizations reported strengthened university partnerships and increased visibility. Qualitative findings identified relational empathy, professional communication, and awareness of social inequities. SL is a valuable pedagogical strategy for promoting humanized, ethically grounded nursing education and meaningful university–community collaboration.