Research
Relationship Between Empathy and Well-Being Among Emergency Nurses

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Introduction

A large number of patients who are in pain upon arriving at the emergency department are still in pain when they are discharged. It is suggested that nurses’ personal traits and their level of empathy can explain in part this issue in pain management. The purpose of this study was to better understand the shortfalls in pain management provided by emergency nurses by considering nurses’ characteristics.

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was used for this pilot study. French validated self-administrated questionnaires (sociodemographic characteristics, empathy, psychological distress, and well-being) were presented to 40 emergency nurses. Thirty emergency nurses completed all questionnaires during work hours. Descriptive statistics, group comparisons, and correlation analyses were used for the data analysis.

Results

Emergency nurses appear to have low levels of empathy. High levels of psychological distress and low levels of well-being were also observed in our sample. Among these variables, only empathy and well-being appear to be related, because we found higher empathy scores in nurses with higher well-being.

Discussion

The poor mental health we found among emergency nurses is alarming. A clear need exists for supportive interventions for nurses. Finally, well-being was the only variable related to empathy. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report this relationship in nurses.

Section snippets

Study Design and Setting

A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was used for this pilot study conducted with a French-speaking population. Recruiting was conducted through convenience sampling in a university hospital center located in the Province of Québec, Canada. The hospital center has 2 emergency departments at separate sites, employing 125 nurses. The 2 emergency departments combined treat close to 100,000 patients a year.

Participants

After obtaining approval from the Ethics Committee of the local hospital, 2

Sociodemographic Characteristics

Of the 40 nurses who volunteered, 30 were interested in the research and decided to take part in the study, and 29 completed all questionnaires. Our sample was mostly women (90%) and fairly young: 20% of participants were 20 to 25 years of age, 23.3% were 26 to 30 years, 23.3% were 31 to 35 years, and 33.3 were older than 36 years. A slight majority worked the day shift (53.3%), whereas 33.3% worked evenings, 10% worked nights, and 3.3% were on rotation through all 3 shifts. For 43.3% of

Discussion

In terms of average age, ratio of men to women, and years of experience, our sample was comparable with what is found among the nurses in our center’s emergency departments.36 It was therefore representative of the accessible population. The first objective of our study was to assess empathy, psychological distress, and well-being in ED nurses. For empathy, our results suggest that our sample was less empathetic than other groups of nurses37 or health professionals, such as physicians28 and

Conclusions

In conclusion, our results provide preliminary evidence that psychological well-being could play a key role in empathy in ED nurses. Of the variables studied—psychological distress and psychological well-being—only the latter seems to be associated with empathy. Therefore, there is reason to believe that improving psychological well-being would lead to higher levels of empathy. Our results also highlight the presence of psychological distress in ED nurses, particularly those who are younger.

Patricia Bourgault is Professor, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

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    Patricia Bourgault is Professor, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Stephan Lavoie is Assistant Professor, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Emilie Paul-Savoie is PhD Student, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Maryse Grégoire is Faculty Lecturer, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, and Clinical Nurse Specialist, Direction interdisciplinaire des services cliniques du Centre hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Cécile Michaud is Professor, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Emilie Gosselin is PhD Student, École des sciences infirmières, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.

    Celeste C. Johnston is Emeritus Professor, post-retirement, School of Nursing, McGill University, Québec, Canada.

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