EMPATHY IN NURSING STUDENTS WHO INITIATE PRE-PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY OF LIMA

Empathy has been identified as a patient-centred component, which supports the therapeutic relationship and the quality of nursing care. It is characterized as a fundamental humanistic element of patient care. In this way, empathy plays an important role as a cognitive attribute that implies for the health professional the understanding of the experiences, concerns and perspectives of the patient. In the professional training stage, as part of an integral training, the nursing student should seek to develop empathy capacity. This will contribute to improving their interaction skills with the people to whom they provide care during clinical practices and community. A study indicates that the levels of empathy in nursing students are going to depend on the different academic or personal factors. Another study shows that empathy does not differ between genders and there is a tendency to increase it as the courses progress. Taking into account that students of a nursing program begin their pre-professional practices in semester III, the main objective of this study is to determine empathy in nursing students who start pre-professional practices at a private university in Lima. The scope of this study is quantitative, its design is descriptive. The population consisted of 121 students from semester III, from a nursing program, who started their pre-professional practices at the beginning of this year. The Jefferson Medical Empathy Scale (EEMJ in Spanish) was applied, made up of 20 items grouped into three dimensions, which measures the level of empathy. The results obtained showed a medium level of empathy (91%), followed by high (8%) and low (1%). These results demonstrate the importance that this university that trains nursing professionals, attaches on promoting the development of empathy in this group of students, so that they improve their social skills. This improvement will be useful in their daily and work life. In addition, this will be transmitted to the patient who cares, providing more security and confidence in their recovery process.