Determining the relationship between nurses' patient-centered care competence and the levels of empathic tendencies

The research is a descriptive study to determine the relationship between nurses' patient-centered care competence and their empathic tendency levels. The universe of the research is Tekirdağ Dr. İsmail Fehmi Cumalıoğlu City Hospital 200 nurses working in internal , surgical units and intensive care units. Data were collected between December 2021 and March 2022 with 162 nurses who volunteered to participate in the study, using the "Descriptive Characteristics Form", "Patient-Centered Care Competence Scale" and "Empathetic Tendency Scale". In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistical methods, independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used for the statistical analysis of the research. SPSS 26.0 package program was used for the analysis of the collected data . The total score of the nurses' Patient-Centered Care Competency Scale was 71.54±8.46, and the empathic disposition scale total score was 68.86±9.82. It was found that the patient-centered care approach level of the nurses included in the study was high and the level of empathic tendency was moderate. There is a statistically significant difference between nurses' empathic tendency scale mean score and gender and marital status (p<0.05). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the Patient-Centered Care Competency Scale and the Empathic Tendency Scale (p<0.05). As a result of the research, it was determined that as their empathic tendencies increased, patient-centered care competence increased.