title: Empathic Communication in Virtual Education for Nursing Students: I'm Sorry to Hear That.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: PhD Candidate, Division of Graduate Studies and Research (Ms Strekalova), and Associate Professor and STEM Translational Communication Center Director (Dr Krieger), College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida; Director of Instructional Design (Dr Kleinheksel) and Chief Technology Officer (Dr Kotranza), Shadow Health, Inc, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: Yulia A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Strekalova
authors.forename: Janice L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Krieger
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kleinheksel
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kotranza
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States