Empathy Toward Patients with Mental Illness among Nursing Students Before and After Completing Clinical Posting in a Psychiatric Hospital at Jammu

Abstract

Empathy is the ability to take on another's perspective, to understand, feel and possibly share and respond to their experience. Empathy is one of the essential skills, which staff working at psychiatry must develop. It is the attitude that gives the nurse an ability to perceive and understand meanings and relevance of patients' feelings and thoughts, and to communicate appropriately. Present study evaluated Empathy among Nursing students toward patients with mental Illness before and after completing clinical posting in a psychiatric hospital at GMC Jammu. It was “Cross-sectional Prospective Study” and 50 Nursing students attending Psychiatry Hospital for clinical posting and who gave consent for study were enrolled (after proper Ethical clearance). Students taken up for the study were assessed (at the start and end of training) by Perth Empathy Scale. Results showed that working with psychiatric patients resulted in marked increase in ability of Nursing students to better understand their emotions and resulted in increase in affective empathy after experience in psychiatry. Results showed that empathy is a skill or behavior which can be learned/developed by proper educational experience. Empathy is often considered as a skill which can be influenced by proper education and clinical practice.