ASSESSMENT OF EMPATHY SKILLS IN MIDWIFERY STUDENTS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SOME OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Empathy is an essential element in midwifery practice, which also has an essential role in creating and quality communication with the patient. Effective, warm and Empathy communication, improved clinical outcomes in the treatment and it is important to increase patient motivation to participate in treatment. Given the importance of empathy in relationship quality and outcomes treatment, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of Empathy in midwifery students.
This descriptive study was conducted in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 1394. In this study, all midwifery students in semester 5 and 7, and 219 pregnant mothers participated. For each student, three pregnant women were enrolled. In order to assess the student's Empathy performance, a modified questionnaire for the patient-perceived of the physician's empathy (JSPPPE) was completed by the participating pregnant mothers and to assess empathy, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy Physician Health Professional version (JSPE-HP) was completed by student self-assessment method.
The mean scores of JSPPPE were (89.38±9.58) and the mean scores of JSE-HP were (80.36±60.1). Statistical tests showed that there is a significant relationship between Empathy performance and some demographic data.
The results of this study show that is good Empathy skills in Midwifery students, however, given the importance of empathy in improving clinical outcomes, strengthening empathy between students and patients seems necessary.