Objectives: Compassion in nursing and interventions to support it are of international relevance and concern. Prior care experience as a prerequisite for entry into pre-registration nurse education is suggested as a means of improving compassion. The impact of prior care experience has not been comprehensively reviewed, therefore the potential effectiveness of prior care experience as a means of improving compassion is unknown. The scoping review question was 'What is known about the impact of care experience prior to commencing pre-registration nurse education and training?' The primary objective was to scope and synthesise existing literature relating to the topic and ascertain key themes pertaining to impact. A secondary objective was to appraise literature, to contextualise findings and assess the state and stage of knowledge and research in the area.Design: The review was guided by Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework and is reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist.Data sources: Health sciences databases CINAHL, Medline and PubMed.Methods: Databases were searched in February 2019, updated August 2021. Data (study characteristics, findings, methodological observations) were extracted from papers meeting inclusion criteria (including peer-reviewed empirical papers with English language, electronic full-text available) and findings thematically analysed. Results: Forty-five papers from 14 countries were included. The majority (64.4 %) were published in Europe (31.1 % in the United Kingdom) between 2010 and 2021 (69 %), 60 % from 2013. Four qualitative themes (compassionate care, commitment, competence and communication) describe the impact of prior care experi-ence, which was variable.Conclusions: Evidence to support the effectiveness of prior care experience as a prerequisite for entry into nurse education to improve compassion, is inconsistent and insufficient. The literature displays methodological limi-tations and conclusions should be interpreted in light of these caveats. Recommendations are made for future research, to improve quality and comparability.