Empathy Training Program for Nursing Staff

Exploring the Effect of Empathy Training Program for Nurses

The research purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of empathy training program for nurses, as well as to investigate the effectiveness of learning satisfaction for nurses and the empathy training program learning subjective experience of nurses.The quantitative method is the experimental research method using randomization. The nurses receiving the intervention of empathy training program are in the experimental group, while those who do not receive it are in the control group.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Empathy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: empathy training program

Detailed Description

"Empathy" is an important foundation for nurses to communicate with patients and establish trust relationships. If nurses lack of empathy literacy or cannot apply empathy communication skills, the role of establishing therapeutic interpersonal relationships with patients or family members will affect the professional performance of nurses and the quality of nursing care. Therefore, improving nurses' empathy literacy and practical application ability has a great correlation with good care quality. However, domestic and international research on the correlation of empathy for nurses are not enough and lack of training program, which show the topic of this research is worth exploring.

The research purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of empathy training program for nurses, as well as to investigate the effectiveness of learning satisfaction for nurses and the empathy training program learning subjective experience of nurses.

In order to make the evaluation of research effectiveness more specific and objective, and also hoped that nurses can be the subject of effectiveness evaluation, and have a deeper understanding of their subjective experiences and feelings. Therefore, the effectiveness evaluation of empathy training program for nurses is using method triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative research method.

The quantitative method is the experimental research method using randomization. The nurses receiving the intervention of empathy training program are in the experimental group, while those who do not receive it are in the control group. The effectiveness assessment will use the Empathy Construct Rating Scale (ECRS) and learning satisfaction scale, Empathy Construct Rating Scale (ECRS) required to be completed by both the experimental group and control group. ECRS perform the pre-test, post-test and post-post-test assessments. The pre-test perform before the implementation of empathy training program, and perform the post-test at week 8 the end of empathy training program, and after 8 weeks of post-test performed the post-post-test. Only experimental group require to complete learning satisfaction scale, perform the post-test at week 8 the end of empathy training program. Descriptive phenomenological research method is used as the qualitative method to explore the empathy training program learning subjective experience of nurses. This study will use purposive sampling to enroll experimental group who has received empathy training program learning, and then perform individual in-depth interviews after the end of empathy training program. Non-structured interview guides are used.

Hopefully, this study may develop an empathy training program which is suitable for nurses. This can enhance the empathy literacy and practical application ability for nurses.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Peitou
    • Taipei, Peitou, Taiwan, 11219
      • Xuan-Yi Huang

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 62 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Nursing staff

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Nursing staff on night shifts
2. Nursing staff working in the hospice and psychiatric wards

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Interventional empathy training program; Provide empathy training for the experimental group for a total of 8 weeks (1 time a week, 1 hour each time).In the 8th week, both the experimental group and the control group must fill in the ECRS Empathy Scale; the experimental group must fill in the Learning Satisfaction Scale	Behavioral: empathy training program; Empathy training, a total of 8 weeks of training (1 time a week, 1 hour each time)
No Intervention: No intervention empathy training program; The control group did not offer empathy training.In the 8th week, both the experimental group and the control group must fill in the ECRS Empathy Scale.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Empathy Construct Rating Scale	A total of 56 questions . It has good reliability and validity (the internal consistency is 0.92, and the test reliability after two weeks is 0.95). The ECRS(Empathy Construct Rating Scale) includes four subscales of caring (38-item), empathy (9-item), professional relationship (5-item), and communication (4-item), which are scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely unsatisfactory) to 6 (full compliance), Higher scores indicate higher empathy	Pre-test
Empathy Construct Rating Scale	A total of 56 questions . It has good reliability and validity (the internal consistency is 0.92, and the test reliability after two weeks is 0.95). The ECRS(Empathy Construct Rating Scale) includes four subscales of caring (38-item), empathy (9-item), professional relationship (5-item), and communication (4-item), which are scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely unsatisfactory) to 6 (full compliance), Higher scores indicate higher empathy	Post-test at Week 8

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
descriptive phenomenological research method	Each interview should not exceed 90 minutes and should be recorded using recording equipment. Qualitative research methods are quite suitable for exploring or less explored research areas or topics, and can gain insight into the nature, characteristics and attributes of life situations, life events, and life experiences.	post-test at Week 8

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
• Collaborators: Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Xuan-Yi Huang, DNSc, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Derksen F, Bensing J, Lagro-Janssen A. Effectiveness of empathy in general practice: a systematic review. Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Jan;63(606):e76-84. doi: 10.3399/bjgp13X660814.
• Bry K, Bry M, Hentz E, Karlsson HL, Kyllonen H, Lundkvist M, Wigert H. Communication skills training enhances nurses' ability to respond with empathy to parents' emotions in a neonatal intensive care unit. Acta Paediatr. 2016 Apr;105(4):397-406. doi: 10.1111/apa.13295. Epub 2016 Jan 21.
• Cao X, Chen L. The impact of empathy on work engagement in hemodialysis nurses: The mediating role of resilience. Jpn J Nurs Sci. 2020 Jan;17(1):e12284. doi: 10.1111/jjns.12284. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
• Fleming BD, Thomas SE, Burnham WS, Charles LT, Shaw D. Improving Ethnocultural Empathy in Healthcare Students through a Targeted Intervention. J Cult Divers. 2015 Summer;22(2):59-63.
• Kahriman I, Nural N, Arslan U, Topbas M, Can G, Kasim S. The Effect of Empathy Training on the Empathic Skills of Nurses. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2016 Jun 5;18(6):e24847. doi: 10.5812/ircmj.24847. eCollection 2016 Jun.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 19, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 7, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): October 14, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 14, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2022
• Last Verified: October 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Effectiveness; Nurses; Empathy Training Program; Subjective Experience
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20210106R

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No