Empathic Traits of Nurses—Comparison with the Non-nurse General Public—

Abstract

Aims: The study aims were: 1) to compare empathy traits of nurses and non-nurse general public and to identify empathy traits of nurses; and 2) to compare empathy traits of nurses by age, years of clinical experience, and job title.

Methods: The study design was two-points cross-sectional study. Study A included 400 nurses working at a national university hospital in Japan. Study B included 416 members of the non-nurse general public. Basic attributes, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Clinical Interpersonal Reactivity Index were used for analysis, and uncorrelated t-tests, multiple regression analysis and correlation analysis were conducted.

Results: Nurses scored significantly higher on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index of “empathic concern” and “perspective taking” and significantly lower on “personal distress” and “fantasy scale” than did the non-nurse general public. In addition, “perspective taking in nursing” and “unconditional positive regard” on the Clinical Interpersonal Reactivity Index were significantly higher for nurse administrators.

Conclusions: This study revealed that nurses need to distinguish and recognize “personal distress” and “empathic concern,” respectively, and to enhance their “fantasy scale” in terms of imagining others.