Effect of structured community-based older people education program on empathy, emotional intelligence, and caring...

The rapid aging of China's population creates an urgent need for nursing students who possess core competencies in empathy, emotional intelligence, and caring behavior to meet the complex needs of older adults. Current educational approaches often emphasize technical skills at the expense of these essential humanistic qualities.

This quasi experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of a 4 weeks Structured Community-based Older People Education (SCOPE) program, comparing it to standard curriculum. Participants included 190 third-year nursing students, assigned to either an intervention group (n = 96) receiving the SCOPE program or a control group (n = 94) receiving standard training. The SCOPE program combined aging simulations, clinical skills laboratories, standardized patient scenarios, and supervised community placements. Validated scales were used to measure outcomes at baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), and at an 8-week follow-up (T2). Data were analyzed using Generalized Estimating Equations.

Students in the SCOPE group showed significant improvements in total empathy (increasing from 81.25 ± 0.85 at T0 to 94.90 ± 1.24 at T2), emotional intelligence (from 122.39 ± 1.10 to 142.63 ± 1.31), and caring behavior (from 177.72 ± 1.60 to 204.77 ± 2.12). These gains were significantly greater than those observed in the control group at both T1 and T2 (p < 0.001). Analysis revealed sustained improvements across dimensions including cognitive empathy and emotional perception, while the control group demonstrated only minimal progress.

SCOPE program significantly enhanced nursing students' humanistic competencies with immediate and retained benefits, suggesting the value of integrating structured experiential learning into nursing curricula.