Changes in the Level of Nursing Students’ Empathy During Four Years Education

Background: The findings on changes in the level of nursing students’ empathy during the university education are contradictory, and it’s not clear whether it decreases/increases after four years of education. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the level of nursing students’ empathy during different years of education. Methods: In this descriptive study, 122 undergraduate nursing students from the first to the fourth year of the program are included. Data were collected using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy Nursing Student Version-R and analyzed by the descriptive and analytical tests in SPSS version 21. Results: The mean score of empathy was 91.8±28.7. The level of empathy significantly declines in the fourth year of education, compared to the first year (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed that the level of empathy of nursing students significantly declines in the fourth year, so exploring its causes would be useful. Also, empathy should be introduced to the nursing students as one of the standards of clinical competency using strategies such as education for empathic communication with the patient in nursing training programs.