The effect of an empathy role-play program for operating room nursing students.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of a role-playing training program for empathetic communication with patients on empathy scores of operating room nursing students.


METHODS
This clinical trial was carried out on 77 operating room nursing students from the first to the fourth years studied in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2017-2018. The intervention administered on the experimental group included a 12-hour training program with the theme of expressing empathy to patients using a role-playing technique. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Students' Version was completed before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention by the samples. Comparison analysis was done among three stages.


RESULTS
Comparing the total mean empathy scores before intervention in the control group and the experimental one did not reveal a significant difference (P=0.50); however, the total mean empathy scores in the experimental group, immediately after and one month after the intervention, was higher than that in the control group (P<0.001).


CONCLUSION
Empathy training through a role-playing technique was effective on improving the empathy scores of operating room nursing students and it also highlighted the fact that empathy could be promoted by education. Making changes in educational curriculum of operating room nursing students was indispensable in order to make them familiar with the concept of empathy in operating room.
['Larti|Negin|N|', 'Ashouri|Elaheh|E|', 'Aarabi|Akram|A|']
D003142:Communication D003479:Curriculum D004506:Education, Nursing D004645:Empathy D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008880:Midwifery D009871:Operating Room Nursing D016544:Patient Simulation D013527:Perioperative Nursing D012381:Role Playing D013338:Students, Nursing
Empathy Role-playing Operating room Students Iran