The Relationship Between Past Experience, Empathy, and Attitudes Toward Poverty

Nursing educators commonly place service-learning and simulation experiences in prelicensure public health nursing courses. These experiences have varying degrees of success in targeting gaps in students' knowledge and attitudes regarding vulnerable populations. This study sought to identify factors that are associated with attitudes toward poverty and empathy scores of senior-level prelicensure nursing students to improve pedagogy in public health nursing courses.

A cross-sectional comparison of senior-level nursing students from traditional and accelerated cohorts at a college of nursing was conducted.

Students with prior volunteer experience reported lower empathy scores compared with students who did not have prior volunteer experience (t[102] = -1.9, p < .05).

Nursing educators should engage students in identifying and evaluating their personal background related to poverty when beginning a public health nursing course to address bias and create shared knowledge. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(3):158-162.].