The impact of implementing the creative drama technique on creative thinking and empathy levels of nursing students in pediatric nursing course

Background: Empathy and creative thinking are two essential skills that nursing students should develop. Objective: To assess the levels of creative thinking and empathy among nursing students who are taking the child health and diseases nursing course. Design: This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest control group. Setting: A health school during the 2023 spring academic year. Participants: The participants of this study were selected from third-year nursing students who were enrolled in the child health and diseases nursing course at a university. Methods: The student Information Form, Basic Empathy Scale, Marmara Creative Thinking Tendencies Scale were used for descriptive characteristics in collecting research data. Creative drama activity was carried out in the experimental group. Results: The findings show that both teaching techniques, experimental and control groups, are effective in increasing students' attitudes towards empathy and creative thinking tendencies related to creative drama. Conclusions: In light of the findings of this study, it is recommended that the use of creative drama and PowerPoint presentation techniques in the education of nursing students should be widespread.