The Effect of Compassionate Care Education on Nurses

December 13, 2025 updated by: Gönül GÜMÜŞ, Kırıkkale University

The Effect of Compassionate Care Training Given According to Watson's Human Caring Model on Nurses' Compassion Levels and Caring Behaviors

Compassion is an important concept underlying relationships between people. Compassion is a complex, multifaceted psychological and social process. Professional values form the basis of nursing care. The concept of compassion is one of these professional values, as well as one of the essential components of care that facilitates nursing care. Compassion-based care provides patient-centered care with a holistic approach while increasing the quality of care. Despite this importance, many healthcare professionals remain inadequate regarding compassionate care. The idea that compassion is innate or learned in people causes various difficulties in teaching compassion. Compassionate care is an emotion that can be taught and developed with innovative interactive methods along with developing technology. Methods such as video-supported teaching and case analysis, which are widely used in nursing education, contribute to developing cognitive and affective skills such as interpretation, critical thinking, and problem-solving in nurses. In this context, it is aimed to implement compassionate care training, developed based on Watson's Human Caring Model, on nurses by enriching it with video-supported teaching and case analysis methods, and to evaluate the effect of this training on nurses' compassion levels and caring behaviors.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The research will be conducted as a single group pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental study to determine the effect of compassionate care training, which will be given using video-assisted teaching and case analysis methods according to Watson's Human Caring Model, on nurses' compassion levels and caring behaviors.

The universe of the research will consist of 220 nurses working in the Surgery Clinic, Internal Medicine Clinic, Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department at Kırıkkale University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between 20.12.2025 and 20.02.2026. The power of the study was measured with the G*Power 3.1.9.2 package program. The sample size was calculated with a medium effect width. Accordingly, the minimum sample size to be studied for 95% power at a significance level of 0.05 and an effect width of 0.5 was predicted to be 54. The research aims to reach 60 people, considering the losses.

The sample will consist of nurses who meet the research criteria, are not on leave during the research period, and agree to participate in the research.

Implementation of the Research:

Preparation phase:

"Preparation of the Content of the Compassionate Care Education Program to be Given According to Watson's Human Care Model" Compassionate care training for nurses, based on Watson's Human Caring Model, has been developed in accordance with literature. The training is planned in four sessions. In sessions 2, 3, and 4, videos from the prepared scenarios will be shown, and case studies will be conducted with the nurses (six case scenarios containing compassionate care behaviors and six scenarios containing negative versions of the same scenario without compassionate care behaviors, for a total of 12 scenarios).

Implementation of the Study During the implementation phase of the study, pre-tests will be conducted between December 20, 2025, and February 20, 2026, by asking all nurses, for whom written consent has been obtained, to complete the "Descriptive Characteristics Form," the "Compassion Competence Scale," and the "Caring Behaviors Scale." All nurses in the sample group will receive compassionate care training implemented according to Watson's Human Caring Model. During the second, third, and fourth sessions of the training, videos taken from the prepared scenarios will be watched, and case studies will be conducted with the nurses. Following this four-week training program, post-test measurements will be taken by asking them to complete the "Compassion Competence Scale" and the "Caring Behaviors Scale." After the compassionate care training implemented according to Watson's Human Caring Model, the "Compassion Competence Scale" and "Caring Behaviors Scale" measurements will be repeated at the end of the first and second months. The training will be delivered in groups of 12 nurses, depending on their work schedules. Nurses will be divided into groups of 12, and the same training session will be delivered face-to-face to five different groups on different days that week, outside of working hours, at the nurses' convenience, in a meeting room at the hospital. After the training, nurses will be asked to complete a "Nurse Feedback Form on Compassionate Care Training."

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

60

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Volunteering to participate in the study,
  • Understanding and using Turkish effectively,
  • Not being on leave during the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Nurses who answered the data collection forms incompletely,
  • Nurses who did not want to continue the study,
  • Nurses who did not participate in even one of the compassionate care education programs of the study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Single Group Assignment
Nurse group
Other: Compassion Competence Scale
Compassion Competence Scale
Other: Caring Behaviors Scale
Caring Behaviors Scale
Other: Nurse Feedback Form on Compassionate Care Training
Nurse Feedback Form on Compassionate Care Training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Compassion Competence Scale
Time Frame: 12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training
"Compassion Competence Scale"; consists of 3 sub-dimensions: "Communication," which expresses understanding and compassion towards patients and their families; "Sensitivity," which expresses the ability to notice and respond to changes in patients' emotions through careful observation; and "Insight," which expresses the ability to clearly understand patients and comprehensively meet their needs and conditions based on professional knowledge. The scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale with 11 items. The scale is interpreted by calculating the mean scores of the items. The highest score that can be obtained from the scale is 5, and the lowest score is 1. As the score increases, the level of compassion competence increases.
12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Caring Behaviors Scale
Time Frame: 12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training
The original version of the Caring Behaviors Scale consists of 42 items. The Turkish version has 30 items and is divided into three subscales: "respect for others" (items 1-10), "professional knowledge and attitude" (items 11-20), and "being available to the individual" (items 21-30). The scale is scored using a six-point Likert-type rating system ranging from "never" to "always" and does not include reverse items. The total score ranges from 30 to 180, with no specified cutoff point. High scores indicate a positive perception of nursing care, while low scores indicate a weak perception.with the Compassionate Care Checklist will be prepared in a table form with the expressions "Strongly Disagree," "Disagree," "Undecided," "Agree," and "Strongly Agree." In the scoring, the expression "Strongly Disagree" will be given 1 point, "Disagree" 2 points, "Undecided" 3 points, "Agree" 4 points, and "Strongly Agree" 5 points. . As the score increases, compassionate care attitudes increases.
12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training
Nurse Feedback Form on Compassionate Care Training
Time Frame: 12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training
This is a form created by the researcher with open-ended questions to obtain nurses' opinions on compassionate care education according to Watson's Human Caring Model. The form includes three open-ended questions that question nurses' feelings and thoughts about the content of the education and the methods used in the education.
12 weeks from enrollment to the end of training

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Kırıkkale University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Gönül GÜMÜŞ, Kırıkkale University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

December 20, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 16, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

February 20, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 18, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 8, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

April 10, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 16, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 13, 2025

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 04-371

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

It will not be shared because it is not ethically appropriate.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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