Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2025; 15(7): 106845
Published online Jul 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i7.106845
Exploring the relationship between death anxiety and empathy among nursing students at an early stage of their clinical internships
Jian-Xin Ye, Li-Qiu Huang, Shi-Lai Yang
Jian-Xin Ye, Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, Fujian Province, China
Li-Qiu Huang, Department of Nephrology, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, Fujian Province, China
Shi-Lai Yang, School of Nursing, Quanzhou Medical College, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Co-first authors: Jian-Xin Ye and Li-Qiu Huang.
Author contributions: Yang SL and Ye JX conceptualized the overall research design; Ye JX and Huang LQ were responsible for enrollment and engaging in data collection, and responsible for analysis the data; Ye JX, Huang LQ and Yang SL played pivotal roles in writing and revising this manuscript.
Supported by 2021 Annual Routine Project of the 14th Five-Year Plan of Fujian Education Science, No. FJJKGZ21-110.
Institutional review board statement: This study has ethics approval by ethics review of Medical Ethics Review Committee of Quanzhou Medical College (2023003).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement— a checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The raw data can be obtained from the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shi-Lai Yang, School of Nursing, Quanzhou Medical College, No. 2 Anji Road, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China. 247872083@qq.com
Received: March 16, 2025
Revised: April 21, 2025
Accepted: May 20, 2025
Published online: July 19, 2025
Processing time: 116 Days and 14.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study examined death anxiety as an internal psychological response and empathy as an external behavioral expression. The results provided a clearer understanding of the psychological changes occurring in nursing students during the early stages of their clinical training.