Evaluating of Psychiatric Simulation Program on Student Nurses' Empathy toward Auditory Hallucinating Patients

Caring for and working with client with auditory hallucination can be a challenge for
undergraduate student nurses do not get a degree in psychiatric nursing. Facilitating a degree of
understanding of these acute states distress is usually most effectively provided in the clinical
environment. Empathy is basic for understanding, shared meaning, and mutual trust that lie as the
heart of therapeutic nurse - patient relationship. This study aimed to evaluate psychiatric simulation
program on nursing students' empathy' toward auditory hallucinating patients. The study followed a
quasi-experimental design and was carried out in two settings; the class room at the Faculty of
Nursing, Tanta University, and Tanta mental Health Hospital that is affiliated to the Ministry of
health. The study subjects include 48 nursing students who were enrolled in psychiatric nursing
educational course. Tools: tool (1) of this study was Empathy scale; it was developed by Davis MH.
Tool (2) was open end questions were developed by researchers to elicited information about; the
subjects emotions that arousal during hearing simulated voices in the program, ways of their coping
with these simulated voices, opinion about the effective coping methods, and their perception
toward auditory hallucinating patients after the program. The main results refer to; increased level
of student nurses' empathy in it's multidimensional after the psychiatric simulation program. It was
concluded that the psychiatric simulation program in the present study help students to learn how to
be empathetic with patients with auditory hallucination, so it was recommended that: the
psychiatric simulation program that was applied in this study to be implemented with students'
nurses that enrolled in psychiatric nursing educational course at faculties of nursing.