Enhancing the quality of patient care and healthcare staff well-being through an empathy immersion educational programme in New Zealand: EmpEd study

The intervention ward will be identified by the chief nursing officer. Every worker in the ward will be invited to participate in the study. Participation means that healthcare workers in the intervention ward will receive the EmpEd immersion programme. Patients and support persons will receive care from healthcare participants and interact with the healthcare them as usual. All participants will fill out a survey at three-time points. The EmpEd immersion programme has 2 components. Empathy Passport: We will provide participants with an empathy passport (hard copy) to complete in their own time. The passport is a physical workbook designed specifically for this study by Registered Nurses, Mind Coach Practitioner and psychology scholar. Participants are expected to work through the activities each week. Reminders of the activities will be provided via email messages and the designated empathy research space on the ward. The passport contains evidence-based activities aimed at improving empathy. These actives are grouped into watching, listening, reading, reflecting and specific empathy tasks such as finding of about people in their team. Activity duration ranged from 1min to 34min. If participants choose 3-4 activities lasting 1-34min they could spend a total of 2hrs per week on the passport activities. Each week the activities will focus on different aspects of empathy: Week 1: Self Compassion-Caring for self Week 2: The people you work with- Getting to know those around you. Week 3: The people who access healthcare- Getting to know patients, family and whanau Week 4: Difference-Getting to know your values and the values of others Week 5: Kindness- Ways to show kindness toward self and others Week 6: Choosing Empathy- Building awareness of your feelings and thoughts about your ability to understand and share in the feelings of others Week 7: Listening and noticing- Enhancing communication Week 8: Self Compassion Revisited- Caring for self Ward based researcher facilitated activities: We will engage with participants in short activities during work time selected from an evidence-based toolkit, designed specifically for this study, that reinforces the weekly empathy passport activities described above. These include 5min meditation sessions, a twice-daily hydration station where the research team make tea and administer it to the ward staff. The focus of the week will be displayed on a ward notice board and in a dedicated area identified as a staff 'quiet space' referred to as the 'Empathy Station'. The station will have a range of resources such as books, swiss ball, interactive posters for staff to write on and display posters with positive messages and prompts about empathy. Engagement is completely optional and at the discretion of each individual participant; no more than 30 minutes each week. Adherence to the intervention activities will be monitored during the daily 'hydration round' when there will be an opportunity to meet with participants.