Patient-centered care is a widely utilized concept in nursing and health care. However, the key components of patient-centered nursing have not yet been reported. Moreover, previous studies on patient-centered care have mostly focused on components of nursing rather than organizational factors. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of influential factors of patient-centered care is required.

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model based on person-centered care theory, and the relevant literature and to test the developed model with covariance structure analysis in order to determine the causal paths among the variables.

The model fit indices for the hypothetical model were suitable for the recommended level (goodness of fit index=.87, standardized root mean residual=.01, root mean square error of approximation=.06, Tucker-Lewis index=.90, comparative fit index=.92, parsimonious normed fit index=.75). In this study, five of the six paths established in the initial hypothetical model were supported. The variables of teamwork, self-leadership, and empathy accounted for 56.4% of hospital nurses' patient-centered care. Among these, empathy was the strongest predictor of patient-centered care.

These results suggest that it is necessary to use strategies to improve self-leadership and empathy. In addition to enhancing the personal factors of nurses, nursing organizations should strive for effective multidisciplinary cooperation with active support for patient-centered care and openness to change.

The aim of the study was to explore nurses’ experience of person-centered relational care in the context of critical care.

Key interview questions were developed based on the human-to-human relationship model suggested by Travelbee. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 11 nurses having more than 2 years of working experience in intensive care units. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted to analyze the data.

Four super-ordinate and nine sub-ordinate themes were identified. Emerged super-ordinate themes were as follows: (1) encountering a live person via patient monitoring systems; (2) deep empathic connection; (3) humanistic and compassionate care, and (4) accompanying the journey to the end. Study findings revealed that nurses in intensive care units experienced ‘balancing emotions’ and ‘authenticity’ in caring when entering human-to-human relationships with dying patients. The phenomenon of person-centered relational care in intensive care units was found to subsume intrinsic attributes of empathy, compassion, and trust, similar to the central concepts of Travelbee's theory.

The interpretative findings in this study provide deeper understanding of Travelbee's human-to-human relationship model. The technological environment in intensive care units did not hinder experienced nurses from forming human-to-human relationships. These themes need to be emphasized in critical care nursing education as well as in nursing management. The results of this study will contribute to understanding nurse-patient caring relationships in depth, and help improve the quality of nursing care in intensive care units.

This study aimed to examine changes of empathy levels of nursing student in two different curricula structures, one called “traditional” and the other called “integrated” curricula. The study was a longitudinal design to follow a cohort of nursing students to examine the magnitude of changes in empathy in their education years.

The study was conducted in a public school of nursing giving a baccalaureate degree, which had a fundamental change in their curricula. In all, 81 students from the traditional curricula and 66 students from the integrated curricula completed the study, and data from a total of 147 students were analyzed between 2003 and 2008. The Empathic Communication Skills Scale and the Empathic Tendency Scale were given to the students in the beginning of their freshman year and at the end of the fourth year just before graduation.

Although both of the curricula were seemed effective at improving empathic skills of students, especially the scores of students who completed the integrated curricula were higher than the scores of the other group attending the traditional curricula (p<.05). However, the empathic tendency scores of students in both curricula decreased at the end of fourth year.

Although undergraduate nursing curricula either traditional or integrated improved empathic skills, it seemed that integrated curricula were more effective than traditional curricula in increasing empathic skills. The more hours and more experiential methods contributed to improved empathy. The decrease in empathic tendency requires further attention of educators and nurse managers.

To develop a substantive theory that represents hospital nurses' experience on caring for dying patients.

Grounded theory method guided the data collection and analysis. A purposeful sample of 15 hospital nurses participated during the period of 2001-2002. The data were collected by semi-structured individual interviews. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Constant comparative analysis was employed to analyze the data.

“Putting oneself into shape while being faithful to feelings and emotions” emerged as the basic social-psychological process. Three different phases were identified: being faithful to own feelings and behaviors; putting oneself into shape; and mourning death. The first phase includes the categories of “establishing trust relationships” and “sympathizing with dying patients and their family members.” The second phase consists of “controlling feelings,” “adjusting ethical conflicts,” and “providing best patient-care,” and “helping family accept the death.” And the third phase consists of “overcoming sadness” and “releasing other negative feelings.”

The result of this study will help health professionals develop efficient support programs that support nurses caring for dying patients in hospitals. Further study needs to be done to verify findings.

This paper was conducted to validate the Korean version of the Peer Group Caring Interaction Scale (PGCIS-K) that measures caring behaviors as experienced by nursing students.

Translation of the PGCIS-K was validated through forward-backward translation methods. Survey data were collected from 218 nursing students in a nursing school. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were evaluated. Internal consistency and the Guttman split-half coefficient were calculated to assess reliability.

The PGIS-K showed reliability except for 4 items (Cronbach's α=.91, Guttman split-half coefficient=.85), which were low (<.30) or negatively correlated with the total scale. A 12-item reduced form of the PGCIS-K was developed by item-analysis and construct validity evidence. Factor loading for the 12 items on 2 factors ranged from .47~.82, which explained 58.4% of the total variance. Two factors were named 'modeling and assistance (Cronbach's α=.87)' and 'communication and sharing (Cronbach's α=.82)'. Convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion validity were supported according to the correlation coefficients of the 2 factors with other measure.

The findings suggest preliminary evidence that the 12-item PGCIS-K can be used to measure nursing students' peer group caring interactions in Korea. Additional studies are recommended to continue the psychometric evaluation of this scale. Also, it can be extended to measure graduate nursing students or staff nurses' peer group caring interaction.

To validate the Korean Version of the Jefferson Empathy Scale for Health professionals (K-JSE-HP) in a sample of Korean nurses.

Internal consistency reliability, construct and criterion validity were calculated using SPSS (22.0) and AMOS (22.0). Data were collected from 253 nurses (230 women, 23 men) working at one university hospital in Seoul, South Korea.

The Korean version of JSE-HP showed reliable internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha for the total scale of .89, and .74~.84 for subscales. The model of three subscales for the K-JSE-HP was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (χ²=864.60, Q=6.55, p<.001, CFI=.94, NNFI=.92). Criterion validity compared to the Interpersonal Reaction Index (IRI) showed significant correlation.

The findings of this study demonstrate that the Korean JSE-HP shows satisfactory construct and criterion validity and reliability. It is a useful tool to measure Korean nurses' empathy.

This study was done to examine the effects of a multicultural education program on nursing students' cultural competence, empathy, and self-efficacy.

In this quasi-experimental study, the participants were assigned to an experimental group (n=40) or a control group (n=40). The data were analyzed using independent t-test, Chi-square or Fisher's exact test, and paired t-test with the SPSS windows 18.0 program.

After receiving the multicultural education program, the levels of cultural competence and self-efficacy in the experimental group were higher than in the control group. The level of empathy increased slightly in the experimental group while it decreased in the control group.

The results of this study indicate that multicultural education is effective in raising the level of cultural competence and self-efficacy in nursing students. Thus, there is a need for continuous effort to integrate multicultural education programs in the nursing curriculum. Repeated study to test effects of these multicultural education programs should be also necessary.