A Pilot Study on Empathy Skills of Pediatrics

Introduction: “Empathy” is a term that stands for the ability of a person to replace himself/herself in terms of emotion and thought with another individual. Empathy is essentially important particularly in the patient-physician relationship in the field of health. Pediatricians’ empathy skills stand out when the matter is the health of children who are the most precious wealth of their parents. Aim: The objective of this pilot study is to identify the empathy skills of physicians dealing with pediatric disorders and to specify the factors affecting these skills in a hospital in Mersin. Materials and methods: This study was conducted on physicians working in the field of child health and diseases. The data collection form consists of two parts; in the first part there are questions about the demographic characteristics of physicians and in the second part there is the “Jefferson empathy scale”. All the analysis for evaluated using Statistica 13.3. Results: The average age of 55 (26 male and 29 female) physicians was 34.11 ± 6.99. The average age of 55 (26 male and 29 female) physicians was 34.11 ± 6.99 years. 6 (10.9%) of the participants were professors, 2 (3.6%) associate professors, 5 (9.1%) assistant professors, 1 (1.8%) sub-branch expert, 10 (18.2%) sub-branch assistant physicians, 31 (56.4%) assistant physicians.The average of the total score of the participants was 98.42 ± 12.71. Conclusion: In our study, the averages of the participants were higher than the intermediate level and this is a positive situation. According to the data obtained in this pilot study, it is thought to increase the studies to improve the positive aspects, which will reveal the factors affecting empathy skill