Pharmacy Practice Faculty Publications

Validation of an Empathy Scale in Pharmacy and Nursing Students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2013

Journal Title

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

ISSN

1553-6467

Volume

77

Issue

5

First Page

1

Last Page

6

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.5688/ajpe77594

PubMed ID

23788805

PubMed Central® ID

PMC3687127

Abstract

Objective. To validate an empathy scale to measure empathy in pharmacy and nursing students.

Methods. A 15-item instrument comprised of the cognitive and affective empathy domains, was created. Each item was rated using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Concurrent validity was demonstrated with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS).

Results. Reliability analysis of data from 216 students (pharmacy, N=158; nursing, N=58) showed that scores on the empathy scale were positively associated with JSE-HPS scores (p

Conclusions. Results of this study demonstrate the reliability and validity of a new scale for evaluating student empathy. Further testing of the scale at other universities is needed to establish validity.

Keywords

Empathy, nursing students, pharmacy students, psychometrics, adult, affect, cognition, curriculum, nursing education, pharmacy education, factor analysis, statistical, female, humans, male, nurse-patient relations, professional-patient relations, questionnaires, reproducibility of results, young adult

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