Investigating midwives' and nurses' beliefs in a just world and levels of empathic tendencies when approaching forensic cases

The study was conducted as a descriptive study between October 2022 and February 2023 in order to examine the fair world belief and empathic tendency levels of midwives and nurses in approach to forensic cases. The population of the study consisted of all midwives and nurses (midwives: 95; nurses: 130; total: 225) working in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital on the European side of Istanbul and all 3rd and 4th year students (midwives 3rd year: 70; midwives 4th year: 53; nurses 3rd year: 108; nurses 4th year: 128; total: 359) actively continuing their education in the Midwifery and Nursing Departments of the Faculty of Health Sciences of a Foundation University on the European side. The study included 264 participants, 118 midwives/nurses and 146 students. The "Personal Information Form", "Just World Belief Scale", "Empathic Tendency Scale" and "Forensic Case Scenarios" were used to collect data. It was found that 77.1% of the employees and 89.7% of the students did not receive training on how to handle forensic cases; 61.9% of the employees and 89.7% of the students did not know what to do in forensic cases; 67.8% of the employees and 69.9% of the students felt inadequate in forensic cases. It was seen that the mean total scores of the Just World Belief and Empathic Tendency scales did not differ according to the groups. There was a weak positive correlation between the mean total score of empathic tendency and the mean total score of just world belief in employees and students; it was seen that the mean total score of empathic tendency of employees affected their feeling of competence in forensic cases. As a result, it was seen that midwives, nurses and students were inadequate in approaching forensic cases, there was a low correlation between the total score of empathic tendency and the total score of just world belief in employees and students, having received training on approaching forensic cases and knowing the regulations affected the level of empathic tendency.