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Digital Empathy in Nursing: Developing a Situated Model for Compassionate Care in Technology-Mediated Environments
Joseph Andrew Pepito1, Faustino Jerome Babate2, Gil Platon Soriano3
1Cebu Doctors University, Cebu, Philippines.
Nursing Inquiry
|April 8, 2026
Summary
Digital transformation is changing nursing, requiring a new understanding of empathy in technology-mediated care. This paper introduces a model for digital empathy, emphasizing its context-sensitive nature in nursing practice.
Area of Science:
- Nursing
- Digital Health
- Bioethics
Background:
- Digital transformation is altering nursing practice, challenging traditional views of empathy based on physical presence.
- The rise of telehealth, electronic systems, and AI necessitates a re-evaluation of how empathy functions in technologically mediated care.
- Digital empathy presents complex philosophical, ethical, and professional questions regarding presence, authenticity, and responsibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conceptually reframe empathy in nursing within the context of digital transformation.
- To explore empathy as a moral and relational orientation, rather than a mere communication skill.
- To introduce the Situated Model of Digital Empathy as a framework for understanding technologically mediated caring.
Main Methods:
- Grounded in humanistic nursing theory (Watson, Paterson, Zderad).
- Conceptual analysis of empathy in technologically mediated nursing care.
- Development of the Situated Model of Digital Empathy heuristic.
Main Results:
- Empathy in nursing is not static but situated, influenced by technological, organizational, and ethical contexts.
- Digital empathy requires understanding its dynamic interplay with humanistic nursing foundations, technological processes, and relational outcomes.
- The Situated Model of Digital Empathy offers a framework to analyze these interrelationships.
Conclusions:
- Empathy must be understood as an evolving, context-sensitive expression of nursing's ethical commitments.
- Sustaining caring, compassion, and professional identity in digital nursing requires adapting to technological advancements.
- Further inquiry is needed into the nature and practice of digital empathy in contemporary nursing.
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