Background <p>Nursing students’ mindful attention awareness and empathic tendencies are essential for the sustainability of individualized care.</p> Aim <p>To investigate the mediating effect of empathic tendencies on the relationship between mindful attention awareness and perception of individualized care among nursing students.</p> Methods <p>This cross-sectional study involved 546 nursing students from two nursing faculties in Türkiye. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Individualized Care Scale, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and the Empathic Tendency Scale between September 2023 and June 2024. Correlation and mediation analyses were applied to investigate the meditating role of empathic tendencies in the correlations between mindful attention awareness and perception of individualized care.</p> Results <p>Mindful attention awareness had a significant effect on empathic tendencies (<i>β</i> = 1.516, <i>p</i> = 0.001) and perception of individualized care (<i>β</i> = 4.601, <i>p</i> = 0.002). Empathic tendencies positively affected the perception of individualized care (<i>β</i> = 0.627, <i>p</i> = 0.001). Empathic tendencies played a mediating role between mindful attention awareness and perception of individualized care (<i>β</i> = 4.245, 95% confidence interval 0.002, 0.014).</p> Conclusions <p>The study adds evidence on the mechanisms of action between mindful attention awareness and perception of individualized care among nursing students and empathic tendency. This study’s results showed that empathic tendency mediates the relationship between mindful attention awareness and perception of individualized care.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>