“Empathy Equals Match”: The Meaning of Empathy as It Is Perceived by Greek Nurse Students-A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Empathy is an integral component of the nurse–patient relationship and is critical to the development of the therapeutic relationship. The focus of this qualitative descriptive study is to explore student nurses’ views on empathy. Student nurses related the concept of empathy, with emotion, conscientiousness, care, communication and support. Empathy for these students was the combination of cognitive, emotional and functional characteristics and skills. Each category, which emerged from the data analysis, contained the concepts of emotion, knowledge and skill. These concepts found to be interrelated and interdependent. This led to the formation of a core category called “Empathy equals Match”.