Research On The Relationship Among Empathy Ability, Emotional State, And Cognitive Style In Clinical Nurses

Objective To explore the status of empathy ability, emotional state, and cognitive style in clinical nurses and the correlations between above the three elements. Methods A total of 458 clinical nurses from two hospitals in Shandong Province participated in this study. They were assessed with the general information questionnaire, interpersonal pointer scale (IRI-C), positive and negative emotional scale, and embedded figure test (EFT). All data were analyzed by SPSS17.0, and analysis methods included independent sample/test, analysis of variance, correlation analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis.Results1. The scores of empathy ability in clinical nursesThe scores of empathy ability were (51.57±9.66); the median score was 2 and the item average score was (2.34±0.44), showing the empathy ability was in a medium level. The empathy concern dimension had the highest score, the lowest score was in personal pain scores dimension.Univariate analysis showed the empathy ability differed in terms of their age, marital status, education, working years, job title, and specific job type (.P>0.05). Nurses in different departments have different scores in personal pain. Head nurse has higher point of view than ordinary nurse.2. The scores of emotional state and cognitive style in clinical nursesThe score of positive emotion in clinic nurses was higher than the negative emotion score; the scores of cognition style were above the average scores, showing that they tended to field independence.3. Correlations of empathy ability, emotional state, and cognitive style in clinical nursesPoint of view was positively related to positive emotion; Imagination and positive emotion were positively related to cognitive style; Empathy concern was positively related to positive emotion; Personal pain was positively related to negative emotion.4. Multivariate regression analyses of empathy ability in clinical nursesPosition and positive emotion positively predicted point of view, and explained 11.3% variance of point of view. Positive emotion and cognitive style positively predicted imagination, and explained 6.9% variance of imagination. Department has an impact on empathy concern and personal pain. Compared with nurses who came from physician department, other department nurses had higher empathy concern and lower personal pain. Compared with the gynecology and pediatrics departments, other department nurses had lower personal pain ability. Positive emotion predicted empathy concern; Negative emotion positively predict personal pain, explaining 11.0% of the variance on the personal pain.Conclusions1. Empathy ability of clinic nurses is in a medium level. The empathy concern dimension has the highest score, and the lowest score is in personal pain dimension.2. Positive emotion score is higher than negative emotion score, and they tend to filed independence.3. Point of view is associated with the positive emotion; Imagination and positive emotion are positively associated with cognitive style.4. Positive emotion is positively predicted its point of view; positive emotion and cognitive style are positively predicted imagination; Positive emotion has an impact on empathy concern; negative emotion positively predicted personal pain.