Empati - ett verktyg i omvårdnaden : En intervjustudie av sjuksköterskans upplevelse av empati

Sammanfattning: The aim of the research is to highlight the nurse's experience of empathy in professional practice. A qualitative approach with ten interviews as a method was used to answer the purpose. Eight women and two men were interviewed with a professional experience of an average of 31 months. After compiling the result from a qualitative manifest content analysis the nurse's experience of empathy was divided into knowledge-based empathy and emotional empathy. In knowledge-based empathy the nurse shows empathy through humanity and by communicating empathy to the patient and relatives. Knowledge-based empathy is based on the fact that the nurse differs from being a private person in relation to being a professional person. Emotional empathy appears when a patient or relative expresses emotions or when personal experience is experienced in the context. The empathetic ability is negatively affected by time shortages and stress at the workplace. Feeling empathy for all patients is not possible, on the other hand similar experiences give an increased sense of empathy. It is important that there is an intellectual ability to use empathy. Empathy is an important competence in nursing to achieve a good healthcare relationship and is a part of the nurse's profession. The nurse may suffer from compassion fatigue, which is an emotional stress for the nurse in nursing care. Compassion fatigue can affect the nurse's ability to be empathetic in the care relationship with the patient.