PERCEPTIONS OF CONSCIENCE OF NURSING STUDENTS ACCORDING TO EMPATHY LEVELS

Abstract

Conscience and empathy are emotional factors affecting caregiving levels of nurses. Aim of this research is determining perceptions of conscience of nursing students, according to their empathy levels. Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational research designs are used in this research conducted on nursing students in third and fourth grades studying at nursing departments of two State Universities in the east of Türkiye. 376 students studying in the third and fourth grades of nursing departments of the mentioned two universities, formed the population of the research. The study has been completed with 286 students accepting to participate in the research, without forming a sample group. Data have been gathered through Student Identification Data Sheet, Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Perception of Conscience Questionnaire (PCQ). The research determined that, average age of the students was 22.43 ±1.96, 61.1% were female, 94.7% were single, 65.3% were living in cities, 50.6 %were attending to a State university, 60.4% freely chose their profession and 42.8% made their choices because of family pressure. Average of total EQ points of the participants, is 2.76±0.66 and average of total PCQ points is 62.52±12.87. The research determined that there is a medium level meaningful correlation in the positive way, between averages of total and subscale points (p