Descenso de empatía en estudiantes de enfermería y análisis de posibles factores implicados

The erosion of empathy among nursing students is a phenomenon studied in different countries. The aim of this study is to analyze changes in the degree of empathy of undergraduate nursing students throughout the four years of university graduation, and possible factors involved. It was applied Empathy Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The Spearman Rho test was used to measure the correlation between the variables, the U Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis for independent samples to evaluate differences in gender, age and empathy according to the level of previous normality explored with the Kolmogorov Smirnov test. First year students present significant differences with the other courses at empathy level. Longitudinal studies should be encouraged to measure and analyze the effect of communication skills training on the empathy of nursing students.