Empathy in Brazilian nursing professionals: a descriptive study

Essential for the help relation, empathy is the ability to understand, share, and perceive the subjective experience of other human beings.

The objective in this non-experimental, exploratory, and descriptive research was to verify, observe, and document empathy in nursing professionals.

Non-experimental, exploratory, and descriptive research. Participants and research context: the study was conducted at two large hospitals, one public and the other private, across all shifts. The sample included 159 individuals. A questionnaire was used to identify sociodemographic characteristics and the empathy inventory was applied.

This study received approval from the Research Ethics Committee at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, opinion 1348/2011, and authorization from the health institutions involved.

The association tests demonstrated that professionals working in the night shift and in a work scale rotation scheme, older professionals, and professionals with longer professional experience are less empathetic. On the other hand, professionals working in the day shift and in a single shift are more empathetic. Other influential factors are the time on the job, education, and work shift.

There is a lack of empathy studies in professional practice contexts, in human resource development programs, and throughout the professional education process.