The role of empathy dimensions in predicting Nurses' attitudes toward organ donation in hospitals of Isfahan province

Introduction: The empathy of nurses with patients, as a moral behavior towards the culture making of organ donation, always has been considered by health sector planners. Therefore, the study of empathy of nurses with patients and their attitude toward organ donation is one of the main goals of nursing education and this study aimed to determine the relationship between nurses' empathy with patients and their attitude toward organ donation in special section of Isfahan province hospitals. Method: A study of descriptive-sectional with participation of 348 Nurses of special sections in hospitals of Isfahan province in 2018 with the selection of cluster sampling method was carried. For gathering the data, questionnaire of empathy of nurses with patients designed by Jefferson and organ donation attitude questionnaire of Tihana were used. Results: The mean and standard deviation of empathy of nurses with patients was (39.26 ± 2.37) and the mean and standard deviation nurses' attitude toward organ donation was (50.46 ± 34.6). Also, the relationship between the components of adopting an empathic view (p=0, 002, R=0, 667), giving empathic care (p=0, 000, R=0, 781), self-care instead of being sick (p=0, 000, R=0, 598) and the empathy variable of nurses with patients (p=0, 000, R=0, 663) with Attitude with organ donation were significant. In total, %56 of the variance of nurses' attitudes towards the organ donation was explained by the variables of the research model obtained from the structural equation test. Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, it seems that education of empathy' nurses with patients can enhance the positive attitude of nurses towards organ donation and eliminate the need for organ transplantation. Also suggested that in subsequent studies, the effect of empathy variable on nurses' attitudes toward organ donation should be investigated intermediacy.