Article: Empathic Communication in Virtual Education for Nursing Students: I'm Sorry to Hear That

The current study examined the communication strategies used by undergraduate nursing students (N = 343) to express empathy during simulated health history interviews. Interacting with a virtual patient, students encountered up to 9 information disclosures that warranted the expression of empathy but recognized few (33.54%). Sophistication of language to express empathy varied depending on the disclosure topic. These findings suggest that empathy as a learned skill can be incorporated into a variety of nursing contexts.

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