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Status unknownNCT04921423Updated Jun 10, 2021

The Study on the Attitude and Empathy of Nursing Students Towards the Elderly

An interventional study of Situational simulation teaching in Empathy and Attitude, sponsored by National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences. Status unknown at 1 site in Taiwan. Open to participants aged 16 Years to 19 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-06-10.

Sponsored by National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jun 2021), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
142
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
16 Years to 19 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The effect of situational simulation teaching intervention on the attitude and empathy of nursing students towards the elderly can be divided into two stages. The first stage is a cross-sectional study on the aging knowledge, attitude and empathy of nursing students. The second stage was the change of nursing students' attitude and empathy towards the elderly after the intervention of situational simulation teaching. The intervention measures included communication theory and skills, aging trend and knowledge, teaching plans for elderly nursing, activities for the elderly and visual experience, application and debriefing of empathy. This study collected and analyzed the data of aging knowledge, attitude and empathy towards the elderly at the end of the term and one month later, in order to explore the changes of attitude and empathy towards the elderly of nursing students after the intervention of situational simulation teaching.

Read the detailed description

Taiwan has entered an aging society and will enter a super aging society in 2026. With the increase of chronic diseases and aging of the elderly, they are gradually weakened. When they are unable to take care of themselves in the future, the demand for institutional care is increasing, and the future labor force is gradually decreasing. The training of care manpower is facing a test. The purpose of this study is to explore the aging knowledge, attitude towards the elderly and empathy of nursing students, and then to explore the change of students' aging knowledge, attitude towards the elderly and empathy after the intervention of simulated situational teaching course, and to explore the change of their willingness to join the elderly career in the future.

In the first stage, a cross-sectional study was conducted to extract 139 nursing science students from an Eastern college. In order to explore the aging knowledge, attitude and empathy towards the elderly, and future career involvement willingness of nursing students, Pearson product difference correlation analysis and Spearman grade correlation coefficient analysis were used to predict the relationship between variables, and multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the data. In the second stage of the study, the subjects were the same as those in the first stage. The experimental group and the control group were randomly assigned by drawing lots, with at least 51 participants. At the beginning, the end and one month after the course, we explored the change of students' ability to take care of the elderly and their willingness to devote to the elderly related career in the future. For inferential analysis, independent sample t-test and chi square test were used to analyze whether there were statistically significant differences in basic information, aging knowledge and attitude towards the elderly between the intervention group and the control group, and then generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used to check the effectiveness of situational simulation course after controlling relevant interference factors. It is expected that nursing students can experience the inconvenience of daily life of the elderly in the way of situational simulation, use empathy skills, carry out role play of teaching plan, and simulate the care behavior and empathy of the elderly in the clinical situation, so as to improve their willingness to choose jobs related to the elderly after graduation.

02

Conditions studied

  • Empathy
  • Attitude

Keywords

  • situational simulation teaching
  • Attitude towards the elderly
  • Empathy towards the elderly
03

In context

Lead sponsor

National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences is the lead sponsor of 119 studies on the registry; 23 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years to 19 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Sophomores of Nursing College

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Students with nursing practice experience
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
142 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    situational simulation teaching

    Clinical case role play and empathy skill practice

    Behavioral: Situational simulation teaching

  • No intervention
    Clinical Case (Problem Based Learning)

    Clinical Case discuss (Problem Based Learning)

Interventions

  • BehavioralSituational simulation teaching

    The intervention included communication theory and skills, aging trend and knowledge, teaching plans for elderly nursing, activities for the elderly and visual experience, application and debriefing of empathy.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The Aging knowledge

    The Aging Knowledge Questionnaire contains 16 true or false questions, and each correct answer gets one point. The higher the score, the better the knowledge of aging. There is no subscale. The score of range from 0-16.

    Time frame: baseline, pre-intervention(T0)

  2. The Aging knowledge

    The Aging Knowledge Questionnaire contains 16 true or false questions, and each correct answer gets one point. The higher the score, the better the knowledge of aging. There is no subscale. The score of range from 0-16.

    Time frame: through study completion, an average of 4 months(T1)

  3. The Aging knowledge

    The Aging Knowledge Questionnaire contains 16 true or false questions, and each correct answer gets one point. The higher the score, the better the knowledge of aging. There is no subscale. The score of range from 0-16.

    Time frame: One month after the completion of the intervention(T2)

  4. Old People Scale

    There are 11 questions in the scale of attitude towards the elderly. The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the more negative the attitude towards the elderly. The score of range from 1-49.

    Time frame: baseline, pre-intervention(T0)

  5. Old People Scale

    There are 11 questions in the scale of attitude towards the elderly. The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the more negative the attitude towards the elderly.The score of range from 1-49.

    Time frame: through study completion, an average of 4 months(T1)

  6. Old People Scale

    There are 11 questions in the scale of attitude towards the elderly. The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the more negative the attitude towards the elderly.The score of range from 1-49.

    Time frame: One month after the completion of the intervention(T2)

  7. Chinese Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

    There are 20 questions in the empathy scale consists of three sub-scales.The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the better the empathy. The score of range from 1-140.

    Time frame: baseline, pre-intervention(T0)

  8. Chinese Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

    There are 20 questions in the empathy scale consists of three sub-scales.The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the better the empathy.The score of range from 1-140.

    Time frame: through study completion, an average of 4 months(T1)

  9. Chinese Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

    There are 20 questions in the empathy scale consists of three sub-scales.The higher the score of Likerts Scale 1-7, the better the empathy.The score of range from 1-140.

    Time frame: One month after the completion of the intervention(T2)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Clinical Situational Empathy Scales

    There are two teaching plans of the Clinical Situation Empathy Scale, which has 4 subs-cales and total of 32 questions. The score of the Likerts Scale is 1-4, and the higher the score, the better the demonstration of empathy.The score of range from 1-128.

    Time frame: One month after the completion of the intervention(T2)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • St. Mary's Medicine Nursing and Management College
    Yilan, Sanxing Township 266, Taiwan
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Jeffries PR. A framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating simulations used as teaching strategies in nursing. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2005 Mar-Apr;26(2):96-103. PubMed 15921126 ↗
  • Cant RP, Cooper SJ. Simulation-based learning in nurse education: systematic review. J Adv Nurs. 2010 Jan;66(1):3-15. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05240.x. PubMed 20423432 ↗
  • Lee KC, Yu CC, Hsieh PL, Li CC, Chao YC. Situated teaching improves empathy learning of the students in a BSN program: A quasi-experimental study. Nurse Educ Today. 2018 May;64:138-143. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2018.02.013. Epub 2018 Feb 13. PubMed 29476960 ↗
  • Zhang S, Liu YH, Zhang HF, Meng LN, Liu PX. Determinants of undergraduate nursing students' care willingness towards the elderly in China: Attitudes, gratitude and knowledge. Nurse Educ Today. 2016 Aug;43:28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2016.04.021. Epub 2016 May 2. PubMed 27286941 ↗
  • Mennenga HA, Bassett S, Pasquariello L. Empathy Development Through Case Study and Simulation. Nurse Educ. 2016 May-Jun;41(3):139-42. doi: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000000226. PubMed 26448156 ↗
  • Elliott R, Bohart AC, Watson JC, Greenberg LS. Empathy. Psychotherapy (Chic). 2011 Mar;48(1):43-9. doi: 10.1037/a0022187. PubMed 21401273 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 10, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04921423
Lead sponsor
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
Responsible party
Chia Jung Hsieh (PhD, RN, Associate Professor, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jun 10, 2021
Start date
Mar 4, 2021
Primary completion
Apr 4, 2021
Completion
Jun 25, 2021 (estimated)
Last update
Jun 10, 2021

Study contacts

Chia-Jung Hsieh, PhD
study director · National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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