The effectiveness of empathy training on the empathy skills of nurses working in intensive care units

Abstract

Background Empathy is an essential condition for effective nursing care. An empathetic relationship between the nurse and the patient leads to positive therapeutic outcomes, increases nurses' adjustment in educational and therapeutic environments and influences their ethical sensitivities. Aims The current study aimed to determine the effectiveness of empathy training on the empathy skills of nurses working in intensive care units of Shahid Bahonar Hospital in Kerman, Iran. Methods This experimental study was conducted on nurses working in intensive care units of Shahid Bahonar Hospital affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Iran. All nurses working in intensive care units of Shahid Bahonar Hospital were selected by randomised sampling. Data were collected by the Davis Empathy Scale (possible range 0–105) and analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Results Comparison of the mean empathy scores showed the mean scores of empathy skills in the control group were 63.45 ± 8.102 and 63.54 ± 8.05 in the pre- and post-test, respectively, which was not significantly different. But the mean scores of empathy skills in the Experimental group were 63.40 ± 8.136 and 67.7 ± 9.027 in the pre- and post-test, respectively, which showed a significant increase ( p < 0.05). Conclusions The present intervention showed the effectiveness of empathy training on the empathy skills of nurses. Empathy can be acquired and learned.