Nursing student as patient: experiential learning in a hospital simulation to improve empathy of nursing students

Background Empathy is an important factor in the relation nurse–patient. To develop empathy in bachelor nursing students is a challenge in nursing education. There are several small experiential learning methods that develop empathy in nursing students, although not in a hospital simulation. By experiencing the role of a patient, nursing students would learn important aspects of empathy. Aim This research will explore what nursing students learn about empathy in the relation nurse–patient, while they lie in bed as a patient seeing the nurse from another perspective. Methodological design Qualitative descriptive study on 75 reflections of bachelor nursing students. Results Students experienced the need for empathy and were confronted with the patient's experiential world, being dependent, enduring hospital life and needing attention from the nurse. Conclusion The change in perspective in the hospital simulation gives nursing students valuable insights in the importance of empathy in the relation patient–nurse. Four themes were identified: endurance, silent scream for attention, scary dependency and confrontation with the role of patient. Students learned about the possibilities and difficulties of empathy in different stages of the simulation. A hospital simulation is a useful and practical method to teach students empathy from the patients’ perspective, on condition that there is a solid preparation for experiential learning.