Paediatric nurses' experience with death: The effect of empathic tendency on their anxiety levels

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive and analytic study is to investigate the effect on anxiety levels of nurses' empathic tendency after experiencing death of patients in the paediatric intensive care unit. No sampling method was used in this study, and all 58 nurses working in the paediatric intensive care unit that agreed to participate in the study were included. The score mean of Empathic Tendency Scale for nurses was 77.43 ± 4.55, their score mean of trait anxiety inventory was 39.82 ± 5.53 and their score mean of state anxiety inventory was 48.03 ± 6.80. This study concluded that nurses had a mild trait anxiety level under normal conditions and experienced moderate anxiety levels when faced with death. This study concluded that the empathic tendency of nurses working in the paediatric intensive care unit had no effect on their anxiety levels when faced with death; however, the anxiety level of nurses decreased as their empathic trends increased.