Listening to patients' voices: Applying the design-thinking method for teaching person-centered care to nursing...

Providing a person-centered care (PCC) education program to nursing students is necessary. This study aims to determine the impact of a design-thinking based education program on how nursing students perceive PCC.

Five 2-h lessons were offered to 105 fourth-year nursing students in South Korea. Each randomly assigned group of eight or nine students was instructed to develop a plan to address the problems/dissatisfaction experienced by patients during hospitalization. The Individualized Care Scale-nurse's version was used to measure student's perception of PCC before and after the education program.

After the program the students exhibited significant improvements in how they viewed supporting patient individuality, with that score increasing by 0.44 (from 3.64 to 4.08; p < 0.0001), and maintaining patient individuality while providing care, with that score increasing by 0.34 (from 3.71 to 4.05; p < 0.0001). Among subdomains, the most notable change was in how the students viewed the personal life situation of patients, and its impact on patients' healthcare outcomes.

This education program, based on the design-thinking approach, was effective in improving the perceptions of nursing students about PCC. Expanding such PCC education programs for nursing school students should therefore be considered.