Abstract
Introduction and Purpose: Exposure to the traumatic event causes the individual to suffer spiritual pain on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can provide strength after the suffering.One of the most basic skills in intervention to the individual is empathy.The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between nursing students’ beliefs about the transformative power of suffering and their empathy levels.
Method: The sample of the study consisted of 170 students who voluntarily participated. The data were obtained with the Sociodemographic Data Form, the Transformative Power of Suffering Scale (TPSS) and the Basic Empathy Scale (BES).
Results: It was found that the level of empathy of women was higher than that of men, that the experience of mental suffer and the presence of an individual experiencing spiritual suffer significantly affected the empathy skill (p <0.05). It was determined that gender, experience of mental suffer and presence of an individual experiencing spiritual suffer did not affect belief in the transformative power of suffering (p> 0.05). In a relational sense, a weak positive correlation was found between the TPSS and BES Cognitive Empathy sub-dimension (p<0.05).
Conclusion and Suggestions: It is seen that nursing students have positive beliefs about the transformative power of suffering and can empathize at the cognitive and emotional level. As nursing students are future caregivers and candidates for psychiatric nurses, their awareness of this power should be increased. Therefore, within the scope of the study findings, it is recommended to reinforce the beliefs of both empathy and the transformative power of suffering through education and teaching methods such as role play and case presentations.