Purpose: To implement a structured empathy educational program as developed from the Delphi technique, as well as to evaluate its effects on empathy competence among undergraduate nursing interns.
Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study. A convenient sample of 118 undergraduate nursing interns was recruited from an affiliated teaching hospital in Wuhan, Central Part of China between Jan 2018 to Mar 2018, who were assigned to either the intervention or the control group based on their own choice. Participants in the intervention group had received a 2-week, 12-hour structured empathy educational program (each week 2 sessions, each session 3 hours). The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Providers (JSE-HPs) was used to assess students’ empathy competence level before and after the intervention.
Results: Independent samples t-test showed the scores of empathy competence level in the intervention group were significantly higher than those in the control group (127.65±13.81 vs. 114.62±13.81, p<0.001) after the intervention. Three domains of empathy competence level were also higher after the two weeks’ training in the intervention group than the control group, including perspective taking (12.81±1.83 vs. 11.31±2.04, p<0.001), compassionate care (45.21±5.11 vs. 41.53±5.26, p=0.001), and standing in the patient’s shoes (50.60±6.12 vs. 44.38±7.17, p<0.001).
Conclusion: This modified empathy training could improve the empathy competence of undergraduate nursing interns, which may provide a validated paradigm for empathy training in other nursing schools. Further studies on longitudinal changes in empathy performance and transference to clinical performance are suggested.