Validation to the Spanish of the Jefferson empathy scale health professions students version and its psychometric properties in nursing students.

Abstract

The ability to empathize with patients has a positive effect on health outcomes and quality of care. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Spanish version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Student version (JSE-HPS) in a sample of 422 nursing students and to compare their factorial structure with that of the original scale. In this study, the Cronbach α value was 0.828. These analyses showed that the scale has a factorial structure with three dimensions and all the items loaded adequately (>0.36) except for item 18 (0.266). The main factor, ̔Perspective taking̕ grouped 10 items; the second factor, ̔Compassionate care̕, grouped 6 items, and the third factor, ̔Standing in the patient s shoes̕, grouped 3 items; 42.2% of the variance was explained. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the Spanish version of the JSE-HPS is a valid and reliable way to evaluate the empathic capacity of nursing students.