Course Objective

  1. Introduce key research and social trends highlighting the ongoing importance of empathy and rapport within nursing practice.
  2. Explore why care may sometimes lack empathy, briefly reviewing the concepts of stigma, discrimination, and distancing in modern care environments.
  3. Compare emotional and cognitive empathy styles, introducing key clinical skills known to strengthen therapeutic empathy within the research literature.
  4. Build awareness of the importance of rapport in caring for patients, reviewing communication skills and technological considerations for strengthening therapeutic alliance and collaboration in nursing practice.
  5. Discuss and reflect on the psychology of trust, reviewing both when and how trust may be broken, and how to recognize signs of mistrust within the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship.
  6. Discuss best practices for adapting communication to fit specific clinical contexts, including: developmental considerations; grief, loss and adjustment; mental health conditions; and, language and communication barriers.
  7. Consolidate existing knowledge of how to apply communication strategies to build empathy and rapport, promote information sharing and improve patient outcomes.