Empathy: a study of two types

The time is long past for nurse researchers and educators to meet the challenge of scientific inquiry of those more abstract components of nursing that have been named the art of nursing and are now identified as dimensions of holistic nursing. C. Rinne (1987) stated that the art of nursing lies within the affective domain. Empathy is an important dimension of that domain and is focused on in the nursing literature. Nursing theorists prior to M. R. Alligood (1992) had not developed models that addressed empathy as more than a singular though multidimensional phenomenon. On the basis of a review of the literature in nursing and related disciplines, M. R. Alligood (1992) proposed two types of empathy: trained and basic. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the differences between the two types of empathy, by evaluating scores from instruments that measured trained and basic empathy and (b) the endurance of empathy scores. Trained empathy was measured with the Layton Empathy Test, and basic empathy was measured with the Hogan Scale. Data were collected over time with 106 nursing students prior to, during, and after completion of a bachelor of science in nursing program at a large southeastern university. Analysis of the data confirmed the phenomenon of two types of empathy with differentiation in endurance that M. R. Alligood (1992) had proposed. The research results have implications for the way nursing educators prepare nurses. This study supports the finding that trained empathy is not sustained. The importance of measurement of students' baseline basic empathy is indicated. The practice of teaching empathy techniques is called into question, and new approaches to facilitate students' discovery of their basic empathy are indicated (M. R. Alligood, G. W. Evans, & D. L. Wilt, 1995).