The Journal of Medical Education and Development

Introduction: Empathy toward patients with mental disorders is important.  This study aims to determine the effect of psychology clerkship on empathy toward patients with psychiatric disorders in nursing students.
Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with pre and post-test design, those who enrolled in apprenticeship course 1 in Ibne-Sina Psychiatric Hospital of Mashhad have been selected by random cluster sampling. Jefferson nurses' empathy questionnaire was completed in three stages before the start of psyche clerkship, on the last day of psyche clerkship and one month after the psyche clerkship in order to investigate any outcome. Data analysis was carried out by variance analysis test with repeated measures.
Results: The results showed that there was a significant mean change in the total empathy score before the start of psychology clerkship (97.0 ± 12.5), the last day of psychology clerkship (98.9 ±12.3) and one month after the end of psyche clerkship (100.0 ± 11.6) (p <0.005).
Conclusion: psyche clerkship improves empathy toward mental disorders in nursing students.