The effect of Spiritual Care Training on the Empathy among Nursing Students

Educating nurses and nursing students about spiritual principles and values helps them to have a deep understanding of moral problems. However, the issue of spirituality is not included in the educational content in bachelor's degree nursing program. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of spiritual care training on the empathy among nursing students in the two nursing colleges affiliated to the Birjand University of Medical Sciences.

The present study was a quasi-experimental research conducted in 2020 in which 29 seventh semester nursing students of Tabas Nursing College as intervention group and 29 seventh semester nursing students of Ferdows Nursing College as control group. The instruments used included a demographic characteristics form and the Jefferson Empathy Questionnaire. The spiritual care training in the intervention group was presented as a five-session workshop (four 90-minute sessions and one 120-minute session) as well as a two-month follow-up. In order to follow the observance of educated materials in the workshop, a researcher-made checklist was used. The control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test, paired t-test, analysis of covariance and chi-square) at a significance level of P<0.05.

The mean scores of empathy before the intervention in the intervention and control groups was not significantly different (p=0.98). However, the mean scores of empathy immediately and two months after the intervention in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group (p<0.001). Ethical Considerations: After obtaining the ethical code, the researcher referred to the study settings and after introducing the research purpose and nature and explaining the way of conducting study to them, a written informed consent from was obtained from the students to participate in the research.

The findings of the present study indicated that spiritual care training can improve the empathy among nursing students. Therefore, it is advised that nurse managers and developers of nursing curriculum consider the spiritual care training for nursing students.