Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena
| Thesis Title | Emotional intelligence, empathy and alexithymia in first and third year students of the degree course in Nursing at the University of Modena and Reggi |
|---|---|
| Name | Venturelli Giulia |
| Supervisor(s) | Di Lorenzo Rosaria |
| Academic Year | 2016/17 |
| Thesis type | Research thesis |
Abstract
Empathy, which is the ability to understand how others feel, is considered an essential component of the therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient. Recently, the importance of emotional intelligence in nursing care has been increasingly emphasized. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, use, understand and consciously manage one's own and others' emotions. An opposite dimension is represented by alexithymia, which represents the difficulty in verbally expressing emotions and empathizing with others. To analyze the psychological dimensions of empathy, emotional intelligence and alexithymia in nursing students and to verify their possible development during the studies, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in 237 students (53 males and 184 females), 130 of first and 107 of the third year of the Nursing Course of University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Three scales, already validated in Italian, were administered to the students of our sample: Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Statistically significant differences were found between the 1st and 3rd year students at the SSEIT (t = -0.6, p = 0.52), JSE (t = -3.2, p = 0,0016) and TAS-20 scores (t = -3.54, p = 0.0005). The SSEIT scores of the 3rd year female students differed significantly from those of male students (t = 2.8, p = 0.006, t-test). All three scales reported a Cronbach's alpha coeff.> 0.80. The SSEIT scale correlated positively with the JSE (Spearman's rho = 0.15, p = 0.02) and negatively with the TAS-20 (Spearman's rho = -0.18, p = 0.006). Our study highlighted a good level of emotional skills among students at the beginning of nursing training, further increased at the last year of degree course, suggesting that emotional skills can be learned, especially from female students, and confirmed that empathy, but not alexithymia, is a dimension of emotional intelligence.