Interprofessional collaboration as a mediator between empathy and lifelong learning in health professions education: a multigroup structural equation modeling approach

Professionalism in health professions education is increasingly understood as a multidimensional construct integrating empathy, interprofessional collaboration, and lifelong learning. While each dimension has been linked to positive educational outcomes, their structural interrelationships and potential disciplinary differences remain insufficiently examined. This study aims to investigate the interrelationships among empathy, physician–nurse collaboration, and lifelong learning across medical and nursing disciplines. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among undergraduate medical and nursing students from four Peruvian universities ( N = 1,707). Empathy, physician–nurse collaboration, and lifelong learning were measured using validated Jefferson Scales. Propensity score matching produced two demographically balanced groups (600 medical, 600 nursing students). Group differences were examined using t tests. Mediation analyses with bias-corrected bootstrapping were conducted separately by discipline. Multigroup structural equation modeling tested cross-disciplinary invariance. Nursing students scored significantly higher in collaboration ( Cohen’s d = 1.24) and lifelong learning ( Cohen’s d = 0.45) than medical students. In both groups, empathy was positively associated with lifelong learning through the mediating role of collaboration. Notably, the indirect effect was significantly stronger in nursing students (58.18% of total effect) than in medical students (34.48%). Multigroup comparison confirmed that this disciplinary difference was driven by the stronger impact of collaboration on lifelong learning in the nursing cohort ( Δχ 2 = 29.43, p < 0.001). Physician–nurse collaboration partially mediates the relationship between empathy and lifelong learning, with a substantially stronger effect in nursing students. These findings highlight interprofessional collaboration as a critical social-learning pathway for transforming empathic dispositions into sustained professional development.