Empathy is one of the key interpersonal skills necessary for therapeutic communication and the provision of quality care to patients. Hence, the authors believe that it is important for students entering medical disciplines to have a relatively high initial level of this skill and to develop it during their studies. The aim of the present study was to assess the level of empathy in students entering the nursing faculty. In order to assess the level of empathy, a comparison of the level of empathy was made between a group of 64 first-year nursing students of the Collegium Medicum
Jagiellonian University and an equally large group of first-year students of Tourism and Leisure at the Cracow University of Economics. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) by M.H Davis was used as a research tool. The results of the study did not confirm the hypothesis that those choosing to study a medical profile are characterised by significantly higher levels of empathy than students of tourism and recreation. Moreover, only an average level of IRI - total empathy - was observed in both groups. In the group of tourism and recreation students, a slightly higher intensity of the empathy component called fantasy was revealed (the difference was statistically significant). The obtained results prove that during the training of nursing students, special attention should be paid to the development of empathy, especially its cognitive component, in the form of the ability to take another person's point of view (the patient's perspective).
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