Abstract
Objective: In an effort to provide more student-centered approaches to the current conduct of nursing education, holistic education appeals to the multifaceted needs and dimensions of today’s learners. Helping nurture students’ growth and development throughout their learning, holistic education aligns with the values of nursing as a discipline, and its benefits are proposed to extend widely. One conceptualization relating specifically to nursing is Empowered Holistic Nursing Education (EHNE). Although nurses are familiar with holistically caring for their patients, it is not well understood how nurse educators perceive the holistic care, education, and well-being support of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore how nurse faculty’s personal and institutional factors relate to their attitudes towards EHNE. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional correlational study was conducted to explore the relationship and potential predictors of nurse faculty’s personal and institutional factors and their attitudes towards EHNE. The relationships were measured using correlation coefficients, and a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine significant predictors. Nurse faculty (n = 150) from across the United Sates participated in an online survey from March-April 2024. Results: Three personal factors were significantly and positively correlated with nurse faculty’s overall scores on the EHNE Scale: opinion towards teaching lifelong learning (r = .208, p = .011), the Cognitive Behavior (CB) subscale of the Empathy Assessment Scale (EAS) (r = .302, p < .001), and the Self-Reflection subscale of the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS- SR) (r = .187, p = .022). The CB subscale of the EAS was the only significant predictor (β = .257, p = .003) in the model, and accounted for 9.5% of the variance in nurse faculty’s attitudes towards EHNE. Key conclusions: This study was the first exploration of nurse faculty’s personal and institutional factors and their relation to one’s attitudes towards EHNE. Faculty’s empathy levels, specifically of the cognitive behavioral domain, significantly predicted their overall attitudes towards EHNE. Further clarity on the concept of EHNE in the literature is necessary. Additional research to identify other factors related to one’s perceptions and practice of holistic nursing education is essential.