Validation of an empathy scale in pharmacy and nursing students.

Objective: To validate an empathy scale to measure empathy in pharmacy and nursing students.

Methods: A 15-item instrument comprised of the cognitive and affective empathy domains, was created. Each item was rated using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Concurrent validity was demonstrated with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS).

Results: Reliability analysis of data from 216 students (pharmacy, N=158; nursing, N=58) showed that scores on the empathy scale were positively associated with JSE-HPS scores (p<0.001). Factor analysis confirmed that 14 of the 15 items were significantly associated with their respective domain, but the overall instrument had limited goodness of fit.

Conclusions: Results of this study demonstrate the reliability and validity of a new scale for evaluating student empathy. Further testing of the scale at other universities is needed to establish validity.