EMPATHY IN NURSING STUDENTS FROM THE METROPOLITANA UNIVERSITY OF BARRANQUILLA (COLOMBIA)

Correlation between mindfulness, empathy and compassion levels of nursing students: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The concept of mindfulness does not attract enough attention in the field of health. Despite this, it is thought to be effective on the concept of empathy and compassion, which have an importance in nursing practices.

AIM

The aim of the study was to investigate the correlation between the mindfulness, empathy and compassion levels of nursing students.

METHODS

This is a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study which comprised 347 students in the nursing department of a university. As data collection tools, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Basic Empathy Scale and the Compassion Scale.

FINDINGS

The results of the study show that no significant correlation was found between the mindfulness, total empathy levels and cognitive empathy levels of the students, and that there was a significant negative correlation between their emotional empathy levels. There was found to be a significant positive correlation between their mindfulness and total compassion levels.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study contribute to the literature that the mindfulness of nursing students is not related to total empathy levels, but is closely related to compassion levels. Some studies in the literature support these findings.

CONCLUSION

It is thought that knowing, teaching and developing the concepts of empathy and compassion in nursing education is important for raising nurses who can provide compassionate care with a high level of empathy. The practice of mindfulness should always have a prominent role in nursing education. Its correlation with empathy and compassion should be consistently highlighted.

Psychometric properties of the Jefferson Empathy Scale in four nursing student faculties

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Medical Empathy Scale, Spanish version (JSE-S), its factorial structure, reliability, and the presence of invariance between genders in the behavior of empathy levels among Chilean nursing students.

METHOD

Instrumental research design. The JSE-S was applied to 1,320 nursing students. A confirmatory factor analysis was used. An invariance study between genders was carried out. Descriptive statistics were estimated. Between genders, Student's T distribution was applied alongside a homoscedasticity analysis. The level of significance was α ≤ 0.05.

RESULTS

The confirmatory factor analysis determined the existence of three dimensions in the matrix. The statistical results of the invariance tests were significant, and allowed comparison between genders. Differences were found between mean empathy values, as well as in some of its dimensions between genders.

CONCLUSION

The factor structure of empathy data and its dimensions is in correspondence with the underlying three-dimensional model. There are differences in empathy levels and their dimensions between genders, with the exception of the compassionate care dimension, which was distributed similarly. Women were more empathetic than men.

Psychometry and estimation of cutoff points of Jefferson Scale of empathy in dental students

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the 3-dimensional latent model of empathy on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy instrument (version S), and to verify the existence of cutoff points capable of differentiating empathy measures classified as: "high," "medium," and "low" using data collected from observations of students from 11 dental faculties of 5 Central American and Caribbean countries (n = 3082) between 2015 and 2019.

METHODS

This is an exploratory, "a posteriori," and non-experimental study. Factor structure and factor invariance by country and gender were analyzed. Hierarchical cluster analysis and bifactorial analysis were applied, and the data were normalized by cluster and by percentiles within them.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the original model was replicable and fit the data, while multigroup analysis allowed assuming an invariant factor structure by country and by gender. There is reliability in the measurement made by the scale and its dimensions.

CONCLUSIONS

The instrument has adequate psychometric properties, and cutoff values obtained allow people with lower or higher levels of empathy and its components to be classified. Therefore, these results solve the problem of comparing the scores and observed levels of empathy between dental schools within and between countries and between genders. Such comparisons were only possible since the original data of each study were made available for traditional statistical methods.