Using Empathetic CAre and REsponse (ECARE) in improving empathy and confidence among nursing and medical students when managing dangerous, aggressive and violent patients in the clinical setting

Background: The use of physical restraint to curtail dangerous or extremely disruptive behaviours in patients has been an established practice to help ensuring safety in healthcare providers' work environment. However, many have deemed it unnecessary and overused with reported negligence on patients' basic needs during its implementation. Studies have shown that having empathy and non-judgmental attitudes are vital in reducing and eliminating the use of restraint. Objectives: To explore whether experiential learning will improve empathy and confidence, among nursing and medical students when managing dangerous, aggressive, and violent patients. Design: A pre- and post-test, same group quasi-experimental design was used to explore the effectiveness of using the Empathetic CAre and REsponse (ECARE), an experiential learning session to equip nursing and medical students on managing dangerous, aggressive, and violent patients. Outcome measures include students' confidence when using verbal de-escalation, physical and chemical restraint techniques. Empathy scores were also compared. Settings: A University offering both medical and nursing program from undergraduate to postgraduate level. Participants: 249 nursing and 50 medical students undergoing the mental health nursing module in Year 2 of their nursing program and psychiatry rotation in Year 3 of their medical education. Results: Results showed that, for both student populations, the empathy and confidence scores significantly improved after attending ECARE. ANCOVA conducted on the post-intervention Jefferson empathy score between the populations with an adjusted baseline score revealed a statistically significant adjusted mean difference between them. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that experiential learning could improve the learners' empathy through the integration of hands-on learning. This in turn could enhance future healthcare professionals' care quality. Experiential learning opportunities should be incorporated into existing pedagogies as this helps to improve students' confidence in managing dangerous, aggressive and violent patients, reducing the use of physical restraint, thereby enhancing the quality of patient care.