First-year nursing students’ initial contact with the clinical learning environment: impacts on their empathy levels and perceptions of professional identity

BACKGROUND: Research shows that the clinical learning environment can affect medical learners’ levels of empathy and formation of professional identity. However, few studies examined the impacts of early exposure to the clinical learning environment on first-year nursing students’ empathy levels and professional identity perceptions. AIM: This study aimed to explore effects of initial contact with the clinical learning environment on first-year nursing students’ empathy levels and perceptions of professional identity. METHODS: This is a mixed-methods study conducted in a medical university and its affiliated hospital in Northeast China. For quantitative analysis, 220 first-year nursing students finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) twice before and after their five-day clinical placement in the hospital in June, 2021. Paired samples t tests were used to explore the changes in first-year nursing students’ cognitive empathy, affective empathy and total empathy levels as measured by IRI before and after the clinical placement. For qualitative analysis, 15 first-year nursing students’ diary recording their clinical learning experiences were analyzed. An inductive thematic analysis approach was adopted to extract themes from the content on professional identity in nursing students’ diary. RESULTS: After the five-day clinical placement, first-year nursing students’ cognitive empathy, affective empathy and total empathy levels all increased. Five themes emerged regarding nursing students’ perceptions of professional identity: (1) Love for the nursing profession; (2) Multiple roles nurses play; (3) Personal characteristics a good nurse needs to have; (4) Deeper understanding of the nursing profession; (5) New understanding of the relationships between patients and nurses, between patients and doctors, and between doctors and nurses. CONCLUSIONS: First-year nursing students’ initial contact with the clinical learning environment helped them enhance empathy levels and shape professional identity. Nursing educators may consider providing nursing students with opportunities of early exposure to the clinical learning setting to cultivate their empathy and develop their professional identity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-022-01016-8.