Empathic tendency in nurses: Systematic review

Objective: It was aimed to determine the empathic tendencies of nurses in Turkey and the factors affecting them. Method: The method of this study was systematic review. In this review, a literature search was performed in the databases of "Web of Science, Google Scholar, Pubmed, Turkish Psychiatry Index and Tr Index" with the key words "empathy, empathic tendency, nurse, nurses, nursing" to access Turkish publications and "empathy, empathic tendency, nurse, nurses, nursing" to access English publications without any date restriction. Turkish and English language publications of studies conducted in Turkey published in peer-reviewed journals, research articles in which only nurses were included in the sample and the Empathic Tendency Scale was used as a data collection tool were included in the study. PRISMA diagram was used to document the number of scans in this study and the study was completed by analysing the research data and synthesising the findings. Findings: Of the 29 studies analysed, 21 were in Turkish and 8 were in English. It was observed that 12 of the studies were descriptive, 5 were descriptive-relational, 4 were descriptive-cross-sectional, 2 were descriptive-analytic, 1 was cross-sectional-relational, 1 was exploratory, 1 was experimental, 1 was cross-sectional, 1 was cross-sectional, 1 was correlational and 1 was a single group unattended observation study (quasi-experimental). The sample of the analysed studies consisted of at least 26 and at most 472 nurses. The total sample of the studies consisted of 4632 nurses. The oldest publication is from 1992 and the newest publication is from 2023. 2020 is the year in which the most studies were conducted. It is seen that the mean empathic tendency scores of the studies are distributed between 59-79; 24 of the researchers interpreted the mean scores as medium and 5 as high. In the majority of the studies analysed, it was observed that the variables of gender, marital status, educational status, working years, working time in the unit, working unit, age and working styles did not have a statistically significant effect on empathic tendency. In at least half of the studies examined, the variables that affect the level of empathic tendency at a statistically significant level are the variables of working position, having children, receiving empathy training, and choosing the profession willingly. In the studies affecting the level of empathic tendency at a statistically significant level, it was found that the level of empathic tendency was statistically significantly lower in nurses who were male, single, had no children, did not receive any training related to empathy, had a long working year, chose the profession reluctantly, had a short service in the unit where they worked, worked continuously at night and had an educational level lower than a bachelor's degree. Conclusion: According to the studies analysed, it is seen that the level of empathic tendency of nurses in our country is generally at a level that can be evaluated as medium level. This situation suggests that attempts should be made to increase the level of empathic tendency in nurses. The fact that the level of empathic tendency can be considered as moderate in the studies conducted on nursing students suggests that undergraduate degree education programmes should be reviewed. The presence of strong evidence that the level of empathic tendency can be increased by education suggests that well-planned postgraduate education programmes should be developed for nurses who are still actively working.