‘Walking in their shoes’: using a patient story in clinical simulation to promote empathy of nursing students

In recent years, public investigations and reports such as the Francis Report (2013) have revealed serious failings in compassionate care in UK hospitals and care homes. Current health and social care policies have increasingly emphasised the importance of nurturing qualities such as caring, compassion, empathy and dignity among healthcare staff providing patient care. Health professional education and training has a significant role to play in this and it is important that education approaches maximise the opportunity for learning and reflection.

We have worked with a creative partner at StoryWorks UK and Cwm Taf University Health Board to produce a short digital story about a patient’s experiences of being in hospital. Using QR codes has enabled us to develop a learning resource package in the form of a story walk. Nine story segments are linked to different locations around the University of South Wales Clinical Simulation Suite which is designed to look like a typical general hospital.

When walking around the simulated hospital environment, nursing students can follow the patient’s journey from diagnosis to discharge and listen to audio recordings recounting the patient’s experience of care in her own voice. We have been testing how the resource can be used in a training setting to promote learning and reflection on patient care among nursing students. Development of the story walk and findings from the educational intervention will be described.