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Narrative medicine as a teaching strategy for nursing students to developing professionalism, empathy and humanistic caring ability: a randomized controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
Background: Narrative medicine has become a solution to cultivate medical students’ ability of empathy and humanistic care. However, the role of narrative medicine is lacking in the study of professionalism. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of narrative medical theory learning and narrative writing on professionalism, empathy and humanistic care ability of nursing students. Methods: This cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted between June 2021 and June 2022 in two universities in Jiangsu, China. The participants of this study were 85 nursing students who were randomly divided into the intervention group ( n = 43) or the control group ( n = 42). Participants in the intervention group were trained in narrative medical theory learning and narrative writing based on a Web-based platform, while those in the control group were not. Self-report questionnaires of professionalism, empathy and humanistic care ability were used before and after intervention. Results: The results showed that the professionalism score of the intervention group was (68.7 ± 6.8 vs. 64.5 ± 7.5; P = 0.005), empathy (99.4 ± 15.7 vs. 92.2 ± 14.6; P = 0.014) and humanistic care ability (127.6 ± 20.0 vs. 113.3 ± 18.8; P = 0.004) were better than the control group. Conclusion: The results of this quantitative study suggest that narrative medical theory education and narrative writing based on the network platform can promote the development of professionalism, empathy and humanistic care ability of nursing undergraduates.
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“These studies indicate that the long-term stability of teaching outcomes and the efficiency of translating knowledge comprehension into clinical decision-making capabilities remain critical challenges to be addressed [11–21].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Xue, M., Sun, H., Xue, J., Zhou, J., Qu, J., Ji, S., Bu, Y., & Liu, Y.
- Affiliations
- Yangzhou University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Yongbing
- Venue
- BMC Medical Education
- Published
- 2023-01-18
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 38-38
- ISSN
- 1472-6920 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9850682
- OpenAlex
- W4317361252
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 9
- FWCI
- 24.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Medical Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- the Jiangsu Graduate Research and Innovation Program (KYCX21_3298)
- the 2020 Medical Education Research Project of the Medical Education Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and Medical Education Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Higher Education (20A0576)
- the Interdisciplinary Research Project of Chinese Language and Literature Special Zone of Yangzhou University (yzuxk202019)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovations in Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Leadership and Management › Healthcare Education and Workforce Issues
- Keywords
- narrative medicine, nursing students, professionalism, empathy, humanistic caring, narrative writing, online learning platforms, nursing education, undergraduate nursing education
- MeSH terms
- Professionalism, Narrative Medicine, Empathy, Humans, Students, Nursing, Narration
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