[Empathy in the nurse practitioners of medical area]

There are very few studies that investigate the capacity for empathy in nursing population. The aim of this study is to analyze the capacity for empathy of nurses serving in the surgical area in relation to gender, age, education and length of service.

The study is descriptive-observational, on a sample of 60 nurses. The instrument used for the assessment of empathy is the rating scale JSPE (HP version) consists of 20 items, where respondents indicate their agreement or disagreement with a 7-point Likert scale. The range of possible values is from 20 to 140: the higher score corresponds to a greater capacity for empathy The questionnaire has demonstrated the validity and reliability of the Italian version of JSPE with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.85.The level of statistical significance accepted is equal to P ≤ 0.05.

The average capacity for empathy professionals surveyed was found to be 104/140. From the data analyzed, it is clear that with increasing years of service to the profession there is a decrease of empathy as well as continuing in the same department causes a decrease in empathy. Also showed a greater empathy of nurses compared to the general practice of neurology.

The study shows that professionals would need to increase the capacity for empathy especially with the passing of the years of service to the profession. Probably as a defense mechanism, the practitioner tends to protect themselves from emotional involvement, supporting activities of a more technical gestures, rather than relational.