The effect of drama-supported, patient role-play experience on empathy and altruism levels in nursing students: A randomized controlled study

Abstract

AimThis study aims to determine the effect of drama-supported, patient role-play experiences on the empathy and altruism levels of nursing students. BackgroundEmpathy, one of the most important skills of the nursing profession, has an important place in the patient-nurse relationship. To be empathetic, which is acknowledged as the most basic motivation of altruistic behavior, requires recognizing emotional states and understanding the needs of others. DesignThe format of this study was a pre-test-post-test, regular parallel-group, randomized, controlled experiment. MethodsThe study data were collected between October 2021 and February 2022. The research was carried out with second-year students at Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Nursing, who did not have any history of hospitalization or any chronic diseases. All subjects agreed to participate in the study (n = 52, intervention group=26, control group 26). Data were collected using a Descriptive Characteristics Form, the Altruism Scale and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Nursing Students (JSENS). After a three-hour drama workshop, participants in the intervention group acted out the role of a bed-bound patient in the laboratory environment and no intervention was applied to the control group. A series of Mixed ANOVAs were conducted for the analysis of the data. ResultsThe mean age of participants was 19.94 years (SD = ± 1.31) and 83.7 % of the participants were women. The intervention group showed a significant increase in altruism compared with the control group, as evidenced by higher scores in the Altruism Scale Total Score and a significant group*time interaction effect. However, in the JSENS Total Score, including the perspective taking and standing in patient’s shoes sub-dimensions, no differences were observed based on group, time and group * time interactions. ConclusionThe patient role-play experience increased the empathy and altruism levels of nursing students, but the effect was not evident at the three-month follow-up.