Empathy toward Patients with Mental Illness among Baccalaureate Nursing Students: Impact of a Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Educational Experience

Empathy is an ability and skill that can be learned and developed through appropriate education and practice. While the importance of nurses' empathy is widely acknowledged, little is known about the impact of passing through the psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University on students' level of empathy. This study aimed to assess the change in level of empathy toward patients with mental illness among baccalaureate nursing students before and after completing a psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience. The study followed a cross-sectional exploratory research design. It was conducted on 204 students in the eighth semester of the academic year 2012-2013, who were enrolled in the course of psychiatric nursing and mental health. A Student's Socio-demographic Characteristics and Previous Experience with Mental Illness Questionnaire and Empathy toward the Mentally Ill Scale were used to collect data. The results indicated that all students significantly achieved high levels of empathy after the psychiatric nursing experience. It was concluded that passing through a psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience can improve baccalaureate nursing students' empathy toward patients with mental illness. Recommendations included the need for further studies compare between students’ levels empathy toward people with mental illness before and after completing various psychiatric nursing educational experiences at different faculties of nursing.