Developing Empathy in Nurses: An Inservice Training Program

doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2006.05.002

Archives of Psychiatric Nursing

Volume 20, Issue 6, December 2006, Pages 249-257

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2006.05.002 Get rights and content

The purpose of this study was to determine whether inservice communication training enhanced the empathic skills of 263 nurses employed at Hacettepe University Hospital. Data were collected using a nurse information form, participants' satisfaction form, and the Empathic Communication Skill B (ECS-B) form developed by Dökmen [Dökmen, Ü. (1988). A new measurement model of the empathy and developing empathy by using psychodrama. Journal of Education Faculty of Ankara University, 21, 155–190]. The ECS-B was used as both a preintervention and a postintervention measure. The data were expressed as means, percentages, and standard deviations, and were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square test and repeated-measures analysis of variance. The posttest scores of nurses increased from 155.6 to 180.5, and training played a role in enhancing nurses' empathic skills with regard to all variables (P < .05). However, a more comprehensive and continuous training should be planned, and its impact on behavior and patient outcomes should be investigated.

Section snippets

Related Literature on Empathy

Empathy is the ability to perceive the meaning and feelings of another and to communicate those feelings to the other person. The concept of empathy was originally used by Lipps in 1897 (Richendoller & Weaver, 1994). There are many current definitions of empathy, with the majority being based on Rogers' (1975) definition (Dökmen, 1988, Walker & Alligood, 2001, White, 1997). Rogers describes empathy as the state of perceiving the internal frame of reference of another person with accuracy and

Method

The purpose of this study was to determine whether inservice communication training enhanced the empathic skills of nurses, taking the following questions into account: What is the nurses' level of empathy? Can the nurses' level of empathy be increased? Does inservice training have an effect on the level of nurses' empathy?

Findings

This study was conducted to determine the effect of inservice training on increasing nurses' levels of empathy. The characteristics of participating nurses whose ECS-B scales were valid are presented in Table 1. The majority (67.9%) of participants were single, 50.0% were 24 years old or younger, 35.8% were between 25 and 30 years, 14.2% were 31 years and above, 38.4% had a baccalaureate degree, and 61.6% had a lower level of education. Of the participants, 81.6% had not previously participated

Discussion

Empathy is a teachable communication skill. However, problems in communication training continue to exist both in school and after school (Ashmore & Banks, 1997, Chant et al., 2002, Gysels et al., 2005, Kruijver et al., 2000, Suikkala & Kilpi, 2001). These problems are related to educational programs, theory–practice gap, and the importance given to communication in the health care system. In addition, there continues to be confusion regarding the concept of empathy and how to measure it in

Limitations

Inadequate staffing meant that some nurses participated in the study after night-shift work and were careless and filled out irrelevant responses. They could not participate in the training given on that day, which had an adverse effect on the training process and on the integrity of the group. During the first stage of this study, the verbal dimension of empathy was considered. Longer training was not possible due to lack of personnel, and the behavioral dimension of empathy and its reflection

Acknowledgment

I offer my sincere thanks to nurses who assumed responsibility for this study (Feryal Akdemir, Songül Kamışlı, Mehtap Kızılkaya, Kezban Demircioğlu, Leyla Daştan, and Sultan Kav), Besti Üstün for her support, Erdem Karabulut for his contribution to statistical evaluation, and all nurse participants who enabled me to have an invaluable experience in this process through their feedback and active participation.

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