Assessment of Levels of Empathic Skills and Autonomy of Nurses Working in Medical and Surgical Units

Objective: This study evaluated the empathic skills and autonomy levels of nurses working in medical and surgery wards, and the factors associated with those skills. Material and Methods: This was descriptive research. A random sample of nurses working in the medical and surgery wards, intensive care unit, and emergency clinics of a private hospital in Istanbul (n= 202) voluntarily completed the survey form. The data were collected using Empathic Skill Scale and Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale. Results: The mean age of sample was 26.78±5.27, and most were graduates from vocational high school of health sciences. The sample had 0-3 years’ experience in the profession and worked in surgery wards. Empathic communication skills, and autonomous and sociotropic personality traits of nurses working in medical and surgery wards, intensive care unit, and emergency clinics were moderate. The empathic skill levels of nurses were higher for nurses who are female, who had high education levels, who worked as responsible nurses, who worked in surgery wards, who followed professional publications, and who attended empathy trainings. Conclusion: It is recommended that specialist nurses be preferred as unit manager nurses and plan the empathy training courses for nurses after graduation.