Jundishapur Scientific Medical Journal

Jundishapur Scientific Medical Journal

A Survey on the Empathy Level of Physicians and Nurses in Teaching Hospitals of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Fereshteh Ebrahimian 1
Sajedeh Boozar 2
Amirali Moghadam Sadegh 3
Maryam Haddadzadeh Shoushtari 4
Abdolhussein Shakurnia 2
1 Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
2 Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
3 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
4 Department of Internal Medicine, Air pollution and respiratory Diseases Research center, Associate professor of Pulmonology, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
10.22118/jsmj.2025.522341.3889
Abstract
Background and Objectives Empathy is the art of understanding and sharing the feelings of others without the tone of speech or behavior reflecting pity or compassion. Given the importance of empathy in the process of caring for patients, this study aimed to investigate the level of empathy of physicians and nurses in teaching hospitals of Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences in 2024.
Subjects and Methods This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on physicians and nurses working in teaching hospitals of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The standard Jefferson Empathy-Jefferson Scale questionnaire was used to collect data. U-Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation tests were used for data analysis. The significance level was set at 0.05.
Results The average total empathy score among physicians and nurses was 89.09 (out of 140 scores), which is at an average level. The mean empathy scores of physicians (91.22 ± 11.72) were significantly higher than those of nurses (87.95 ± 10.74) (p=0.010). The mean empathy scores of males (90.42 ± 11.43) and females (88.22 ± 10.95) were not significantly different (p=0.053). Spearman's correlation coefficient showed that there was a positive and significant relationship of empathy with age (r=0.219, p=0.0001), experience (r=0.159, p=0.004), and interest (r=0.211, p=0.0001).
Conclusion The findings of the study indicate the need for effective and practical training courses and services to improve the status of empathetic relationships in Ahvaz.
Keywords
Empathy
Jefferson Scale of Empathy
Physicians
Nurses
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 09 May 2025
  • Revise Date 03 August 2025
  • Accept Date 06 October 2025