ArticleBMC nursing2022
First-year nursing students' initial contact with the clinical learning environment: impacts on their empathy levels and perceptions of professional identity.
Article in BMC nursing, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Learning by Doing: Chinese Male Nursing Students' Experiences of Developing and Demonstrating Empathy When Caring for Patients in the Oncology Wards.Nursing open · 2026Article
- Investigating current status and influencing factors of career intentions among Chinese nursing undergraduates: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Perceived professional benefits among nursing interns in the later stage of clinical practicum: a descriptive qualitative study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Career perception as an upstream determinant of mental health and professional competencies in health professions education during systemic disruption.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Sleep Quality and Pain Empathy Among Nursing Interns: The Serial Mediating Roles of Burnout and Moral Identity.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
- Nursing students' views and preferences regarding the Clinical Learning Environment in Morocco: A cross-sectional study.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Article
- The impact of clinical learning environment factors on caring behaviors: the mediating role of psychological resilience among nursing intern students.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationship between professional identity, cultural sensibility, and empathy among nursing students: evidence from path analysis.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Perceived vs. experienced care: a comparison between nursing students' self-assessed competence and patients' reported care.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The impact of empathy on professional identity among Chinese junior male nurses: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Persian version of the motivation for nursing student scale (MNSS).BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Adaptation and Validation of the Nursing Attitude Questionnaire in a Spanish Population.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2024Article
- Lebanese nursing students' perceptions of barriers to the implementation of person-centered care in clinical settings: A qualitative study.Nursing open · 2024Article
- Secondary traumatic stress and vicarious posttraumatic growth in oncology nurses: the mediating role of empathy.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Students' self-perception of empathy in caring.Curationis · 2023Article
- Comparing Preferred and Actual Clinical Learning Environments and Perceptions of First-Year Nursing Students in Long-Term Care: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Visualizing the Structure of First-Year Nursing Students' Learning From Outpatient Experiences in Early Community-Based Practicum.Global qualitative nursing researchArticle
- Personal Values in Everyday Prosocial Situations Among Healthcare Students: A Qualitative Content Analysis.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
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Abstract
backgroundResearch shows that the clinical learning environment can affect medical learners' levels of empathy and formation of professional identity. However, few studies examined the impacts of early exposure to the clinical learning environment on first-year nursing students' empathy levels and professional identity perceptions.
aimThis study aimed to explore effects of initial contact with the clinical learning environment on first-year nursing students' empathy levels and perceptions of professional identity.
methodsThis is a mixed-methods study conducted in a medical university and its affiliated hospital in Northeast China. For quantitative analysis, 220 first-year nursing students finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) twice before and after their five-day clinical placement in the hospital in June, 2021. Paired samples t tests were used to explore the changes in first-year nursing students' cognitive empathy, affective empathy and total empathy levels as measured by IRI before and after the clinical placement. For qualitative analysis, 15 first-year nursing students' diary recording their clinical learning experiences were analyzed. An inductive thematic analysis approach was adopted to extract themes from the content on professional identity in nursing students' diary.
resultsAfter the five-day clinical placement, first-year nursing students' cognitive empathy, affective empathy and total empathy levels all increased. Five themes emerged regarding nursing students' perceptions of professional identity: (1) Love for the nursing profession; (2) Multiple roles nurses play; (3) Personal characteristics a good nurse needs to have; (4) Deeper understanding of the nursing profession; (5) New understanding of the relationships between patients and nurses, between patients and doctors, and between doctors and nurses.
conclusionsFirst-year nursing students' initial contact with the clinical learning environment helped them enhance empathy levels and shape professional identity. Nursing educators may consider providing nursing students with opportunities of early exposure to the clinical learning setting to cultivate their empathy and develop their professional identity.
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