Undergraduate Nursing StudentsNCT07503535
Mindful Simulation Training in Palliative Care Education for Nursing Students
A study testing Mindfulness-based intervention and Simulation-based learning in people with Undergraduate Nursing Students, run by Hong Kong Metropolitan University at 1 site in Hong Kong.
Trial summary
Nursing students frequently encounter dying patients during clinical placements with limited preparation, leading to negative attitudes toward end-of-life care, death anxiety, and risk of compassion fatigue. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Undergraduate Nursing Students
- What is being tested?
- Mindfulness-based intervention and Simulation-based learning
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 182 participants
- Where
- 1 siteHong Kong
- Study dates
- 2 Mar 2026to 1 Jun 2028
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Nursing students aged 18 or above
- Currently studying a full-time nursing program in Hong Kong
- Regardless of the study year, e.g., Year 1 to Year 5
- Able to comprehend English and Cantonese
- Able to use electronic devices to complete an online survey
- Have enrolled or studied in the prerequisite course provides baseline knowledge in palliative care training
Who cannot join
- Nursing students who are under 18
- Have been regularly practicing instructor-led mindfulness interventions once a week or more during the past 6 months
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Effects of Mindful Simulation Training in Palliative Care Education for Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Nursing students frequently encounter dying patients during clinical placements with limited preparation, leading to negative attitudes toward end-of-life care, death anxiety, and risk of compassion fatigue. Simulation-based education offers a safe environment for experiential learning in palliative care, yet most existing programs do not integrate mindfulness components to address the psychological demands of this setting. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown promise in improving self-compassion and reducing burnout in healthcare professionals, but evidence among undergraduate nursing students remains limited.
This study aims to evaluate the effects of a Mindful Simulation Training (MST) program on compassion, palliative care knowledge, attitudes toward end-of-life care, and professional quality of life among undergraduate nursing students.
Read the detailed description
Palliative care addresses the physical, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of patients with life-limiting illness and their families. In Hong Kong, palliative care services have expanded from hospital settings to community care homes, increasing demand for well-prepared nursing graduates. Nursing students as the future palliative care workforce often encounter dying patients during placements with inadequate educational preparation, resulting in negative attitudes, death anxiety, and emotional distress. Evidence shows nursing students report less positive end-of-life (EOL) attitudes and lower confidence than practicing nurses, with documented gaps in undergraduate palliative care curricula. Compassion fatigue is well established among nurses in palliative settings and has also been documented among nursing students during clinical placements. Conversely, compassion practice and adaptive coping are associated with reduced burnout and enhanced satisfaction.
Simulation-based training provides opportunities for experiential, reflective, and affective learning in palliative care, with evidence supporting improvements in knowledge, attitudes, communication, and emotional preparedness. However, few simulation studies have integrated mindfulness components specifically targeting psychological flexibility and compassion competence.
This is a three-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial with a sequential mixed-methods study designed to compare the effectiveness of Mindful Simulation Training (MST), Traditional Simulation Training (TST), and a Waitlist Control (WC) over a 4-week intervention period with follow-up at 8 weeks on improving the compassion, palliative care knowledge, attitudes toward end-of-life care, and professional quality of life among undergraduate nursing students.
- Conditions
- Undergraduate Nursing Students
- Being tested
- Mindfulness-based intervention, Simulation-based learning
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Mindfulness-based interventionBehavioural
The face-to-face mindfulness induction workshop will be delivered by a certified mindfulness instructor. The mindfulness interventions, including the tools and informal practice. Paper handouts regarding the mindfulness techniques and informal practice will be given to participants to facilitate the learning and self-paced practice.
Simulation-based learningBehavioural
The simulation scenario will consist of 3 components, including pre-briefing, simulation activity, and debriefing.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Mindful Simulation Training (MST) | Experimental | The intervention consists of one session of a 60-min face-to-face mindfulness induction workshop, three sessions of weekly self-paced mindfulness practice, and one session of a 60-min simulation workshop. Receives: Behavioral: Mindfulness-based intervention; Behavioral: Simulation-based learning |
| Traditional Simulation Training (TST) | Active comparator | The participants will attend one session of a 60-min simulation workshop and receive the mindfulness materials upon completion of the 2-month study period. Receives: Behavioral: Simulation-based learning |
| Waitlist Control (WC) | No intervention | The wait-list control group will continue with usual learning activities and receive the mindful simulation training upon completion of the 2-month study period. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Compassion
Compassionate Engagement and Action Scales (CEAS) measures three themes of compassion: 1) Self-compassion; 2) Compassion for others; 3) Compassion from others. Each scale consists of 13 items to measure different elements in compassion engagement and action which will be rated on a 10-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 10 (always)
Measured: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Secondary outcomes (3)
Attitude towards Palliative Care
The Frommelt Attitudes Towards Care of Dying Scale (FATCOD-B) assesses attitudes using 30 items on a 5-point Likert scale. The scale includes an equal distribution of positive and negative statements. Participants rate their agreement with each statement on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 represents "Strongly Disagree" and 5 represents "Strongly Agree."
Measured: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Knowledge in Palliative Care
The Palliative Care Knowledge Test (PCKT), a 20-item assessment, evaluates knowledge across five key domains: philosophy of palliative care (two items), pain management (six items), dyspnea (four items), psychiatric issues (four items), and gastrointestinal problems (four items).
Measured: Baseline, 4weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Professional Quality of Life
The Professional Quality of Life Scale: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Version 5 (ProQoL-5) comprises three subscales: (1) Compassion Satisfaction - 10 items (2) Burnout - 10 items (3) Secondary Traumatic Stress - 10 items. ProQoL-5 assesses compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue using 30 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 represents "never" and 5 represents "very often" regarding the previous 30 days a respondent has experienced.
Measured: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted31 Mar 2026
- Study start2 Mar 2026
- Primary completion1 Dec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion1 Jun 2028 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Undergraduate Nursing StudentsStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Outcomes assessor
- Enrolment
- 182 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Hong Kong Metropolitan University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The University of Hong Kong
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Ms Carmen CHOI Ka Man, Hong Kong Metropolitan University
- Investigators
- Jojo Yan Yan Kwok, PhD, Principal investigator, The University of Hong Kong
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07503535
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- HE-SF2026/09
- Status last verified
- Mar 2026
- First submitted
- 25 Mar 2026
- Last updated
- 31 Mar 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 31 Mar 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Effects of Mindful Simulation Training in Palliative Care Education for Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07503535
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- HE-SF2026/09
- Conditions
- Undergraduate Nursing Students
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Active, not recruiting
- Enrolment
- 182 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Hong Kong Metropolitan UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The University of Hong Kong
- Study start
- 2 Mar 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 1 Dec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 1 Jun 2028 (estimated)
- First posted
- 31 Mar 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Nursing students frequently encounter dying patients during clinical placements with limited preparation, leading to negative attitudes toward end-of-life care, death anxiety, and risk of compassion fatigue. Simulation-based education offers a safe environment for experiential learning in palliative care, yet most existing programs do not integrate mindfulness components to address the psychological demands of this setting. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown promise in improving self-compassion and reducing burnout in healthcare professionals, but evidence among undergraduate nursing students remains limited.
This study aims to evaluate the effects of a Mindful Simulation Training (MST) program on compassion, palliative care knowledge, attitudes toward end-of-life care, and professional quality of life among undergraduate nursing students.
Detailed description
Palliative care addresses the physical, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of patients with life-limiting illness and their families. In Hong Kong, palliative care services have expanded from hospital settings to community care homes, increasing demand for well-prepared nursing graduates. Nursing students as the future palliative care workforce often encounter dying patients during placements with inadequate educational preparation, resulting in negative attitudes, death anxiety, and emotional distress. Evidence shows nursing students report less positive end-of-life (EOL) attitudes and lower confidence than practicing nurses, with documented gaps in undergraduate palliative care curricula. Compassion fatigue is well established among nurses in palliative settings and has also been documented among nursing students during clinical placements. Conversely, compassion practice and adaptive coping are associated with reduced burnout and enhanced satisfaction.
Simulation-based training provides opportunities for experiential, reflective, and affective learning in palliative care, with evidence supporting improvements in knowledge, attitudes, communication, and emotional preparedness. However, few simulation studies have integrated mindfulness components specifically targeting psychological flexibility and compassion competence.
This is a three-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial with a sequential mixed-methods study designed to compare the effectiveness of Mindful Simulation Training (MST), Traditional Simulation Training (TST), and a Waitlist Control (WC) over a 4-week intervention period with follow-up at 8 weeks on improving the compassion, palliative care knowledge, attitudes toward end-of-life care, and professional quality of life among undergraduate nursing students.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (outcomes assessor)
- Number of arms
- 3
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Mindful Simulation Training (MST) | Experimental | Behavioral: Mindfulness-based intervention, Behavioral: Simulation-based learningThe intervention consists of one session of a 60-min face-to-face mindfulness induction workshop, three sessions of weekly self-paced mindfulness practice, and one session of a 60-min simulation workshop. |
| Traditional Simulation Training (TST) | Active comparator | Behavioral: Simulation-based learningThe participants will attend one session of a 60-min simulation workshop and receive the mindfulness materials upon completion of the 2-month study period. |
| Waitlist Control (WC) | No intervention | –The wait-list control group will continue with usual learning activities and receive the mindful simulation training upon completion of the 2-month study period. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (6 listed)
- Nursing students aged 18 or above
- Currently studying a full-time nursing program in Hong Kong
- Regardless of the study year, e.g., Year 1 to Year 5
- Able to comprehend English and Cantonese
- Able to use electronic devices to complete an online survey
Key exclusion criteria (2 listed)
- Nursing students who are under 18
- Have been regularly practicing instructor-led mindfulness interventions once a week or more during the past 6 months
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-based interventionThe face-to-face mindfulness induction workshop will be delivered by a certified mindfulness instructor. The mindfulness interventions, including the tools and informal practice. Paper handouts regarding the mindfulness techniques and informal practice will be given to participants to facilitate the learning and self-paced practice. | Behavioural | Mindful Simulation Training (MST) |
| Simulation-based learningThe simulation scenario will consist of 3 components, including pre-briefing, simulation activity, and debriefing. | Behavioural | Mindful Simulation Training (MST), Traditional Simulation Training (TST) |
Primary outcome
Compassion
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Compassionate Engagement and Action Scales (CEAS) measures three themes of compassion: 1) Self-compassion; 2) Compassion for others; 3) Compassion from others. Each scale consists of 13 items to measure different elements in compassion engagement and action which will be rated on a 10-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 10 (always)
3 secondary outcomes
Attitude towards Palliative Care
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Knowledge in Palliative Care
Time frame: Baseline, 4weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Professional Quality of Life
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 31 Mar 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Jojo Yan Yan Kwok, PhD principal investigator
The University of Hong Kong
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Mindfulness-based intervention and Simulation-based learning in people with Undergraduate Nursing Students, run by Hong Kong Metropolitan University at 1 site in Hong Kong.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 6 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: under way, not looking for participants, as of the sponsor's last update on 31 Mar 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Hong Kong. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Compassion (time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after baseline). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 31 Mar 2026.