Fostering Empathy in Vocational Nursing Students Through Whole-Process Values Education: A Pathway Development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/3dy0yq08Keywords:
nursing education, empathy, values education, vocational students, curriculum reformAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the current status of empathy and the implementation of whole-process values education among vocational undergraduate nursing students, to identify existing deficiencies in empathy cultivation, and to develop a comprehensive whole-process empathy cultivation pathway grounded in values education theory, thereby providing practical and evidence-based recommendations for curriculum reform in vocational undergraduate nursing education. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was employed. A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 308 nursing students from a vocational undergraduate college in Haikou, China, between September and November 2024. Data were collected using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Nursing Student Version (JSPE-NS) and a self-designed questionnaire on values education implementation. Descriptive statistics, independent-sample t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance were performed using SPSS 26.0. Results: The mean empathy score of the participants was 93.97 ± 9.93, indicating a moderately high level of empathy; however, the Perspective Taking dimension scored relatively lower than other dimensions. No significant difference in empathy scores was found between on-campus students and clinical interns (P > 0.05). The survey further revealed notable deficiencies in life education, empathy-oriented teaching within professional courses, simulation-based humanistic training, and school–hospital collaborative education. Based on these findings, a whole-process empathy cultivation pathway was developed, comprising four progressive stages: value cognition, emotional experience, behavioral training, and professional identity development. Supporting measures, including curriculum resource development, optimization of practical teaching platforms, and school–hospital collaborative evaluation mechanisms, were also proposed. Conclusion: Although vocational undergraduate nursing students demonstrated a relatively good level of empathy, a continuous and integrated cultivation mechanism spanning theoretical learning, simulation training, and clinical practice has not yet been fully established. The proposed pathway offers a practical framework for integrating empathy cultivation with values education and provides valuable implications for talent cultivation and curriculum reform.References
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