EFFECTS OF EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION ON EMPATHY LEVEL AND CARING BEHAVIOUR AMONG NURSING INTERNS

Abstract

Empathy and caring behaviors are foundational to high-quality, patient-centered nursing care, yet nursing interns frequently experience empathy erosion during challenging clinical transitions without structured institutional support. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the efficacy of an 8-week structured educational intervention utilizing Hojat's Ten Approaches to Empathy Enhancement on the communication, therapeutic interaction, and reflective learning abilities of 94 nursing interns allocated into experimental and control groups across two major hospital settings in Lahore. While baseline assessments confirmed that no statistically significant differences existed between the cohorts (p > 0.05), post-intervention results revealed robust, highly significant improvements within the experimental group. Specifically, the experimental group’s empathy scores escalated dramatically from 18.17+7.50 to 55.29+2.08 (p < 0.001), while their caring behavior scores rose from 48.40+5.35 to 87.85+5.26 (p < 0.001). Independent t-tests verified that the multi-modal curriculum, which seamlessly combined interactive lectures, self-directed booklet learning, and experiential simulations, exerted a powerful, statistically significant effect on both primary outcomes compared to the minimal, non-significant variations observed in the control group (p < 0.001). In conclusion, this structured training program is highly effective in systematically cultivating professional compassion among transitioning clinicians. These definitive empirical findings strongly advocate for the permanent integration of dedicated empathy frameworks into standard nursing curricula and hospital internship programs, offering a scalable method to strengthen therapeutic relationships, reinforce professional ethics, and ultimately elevate the clinical quality of patient care.