Background: Empathy is recognized as a core component of nursing leadership; however, limited research has investigated the impact of empathy-based leadership education on nursing students’ psychological and clinical competencies. This study evaluated changes in mindfulness, empathy, self-leadership, and clinical competence among nursing students following participation in an empathy-based nursing leadership class.
Methods: This study used a one group pretest–posttest design. Seventy-three third-year nursing students participated in an eight-week empathy-based nursing leadership class at a university in Korea during the first semester of 2025. The program integrated empathy-centered nursing leadership content with mindfulness-based training to promote empathic engagement and emotion regulation. Students engaged in reflective journaling and group projects designed to apply leadership skills in practice. Self-reported measures of mindfulness, empathy, self-leadership, and clinical competence were collected before and after the course. Paired t-tests were used to analyze data to examine pre- and post-intervention differences in study variables.
Results: Positive correlations were observed among mindfulness, empathy, self-leadership, and clinical competence, showing that higher levels of mindfulness and empathy were associated with greater self-leadership and clinical competence. Participation in the empathy-based nursing leadership class resulted in significant increases in mindfulness (t = –3.63, p = .001), empathy (t = –4.66, p < .001), self-leadership (t = –3.21, p = .002), and clinical competence (t = –6.39, p < .001).
Conclusions: The empathy-based nursing leadership class was associated with significant pre–post increases in students’ emotional and professional competencies, supporting the potential value of integrating empathy-centered and mindfulness-based approaches into leadership education. These findings suggest that fostering mindfulness and empathy may be associated with greater self-leadership and clinical competence, potentially contributing to more compassionate and patient-centered care.
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Orginal Article |
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● Health Education Received: 2026/06/30 | Accepted: 2026/09/9 | Published: 2026/11/4