Resilience as a predictor of empathy in Colombian nursing students

Guiomar Hernández-Alvarez; Rossana López-Sáleme; Katty Escobar-Velásquez; José Rolando Gamarra-Moncayo; REYES REYES, FERNANDO TEDDY; Alejandro Reyes-Reyes; Víctor Díaz-Narváez

doi:10.37689/acta-ape/2025AO001325i

Resilience as a predictor of empathy in Colombian nursing students

Journal

Acta Paulista de Enfermagem

ISSN

1982-0194

Date Issued

2025

Author(s)

Guiomar Hernández-Alvarez

Rossana López-Sáleme

Katty Escobar-Velásquez

José Rolando Gamarra-Moncayo

REYES REYES, FERNANDO TEDDY

Facultad de Psicología

Alejandro Reyes-Reyes

Víctor Díaz-Narváez

Type

journal-article

DOI

10.37689/acta-ape/2025AO001325i

URL

https://hdl.handle.net/123456789/11717

URL Institutional Repository

https://hdl.handle.net/11447/10921

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study aims to determine whether individual resilience can predict empathic behavior in undergraduate nursing students and how resilience influences empathy (positively or negatively). Methods Descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational study. The population consisted of 516 students from all academic semesters duly enrolled in the 2023 academic cycle in the Faculty of Nursing, Universidad Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. A convenience sample of 330 students was selected, with a predominance of women compared to men. To assess empathy, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professionals was used, which has three dimensions (Compassionate Care, Perspective-Taking, and “Walking in the Patient’s Shoes”), and resilience was measured using the Trait Resilience Scale composed of three dimensions (Engineering, Ecology, and Adaptation). Empathy and resilience data were subjected to psychometric analysis to verify compliance with the theoretical model and the presence of the dimensions of each construct in the data. Descriptive statistics of each scale are presented. The prediction of resilience on empathy was performed using Structural Equation Models (SEM). Results There is an overall positive relationship between resilience as a predictor of empathy; the goodness-of-fit indicators of the implemented SEM model prove to be adequate; however, not all dimensions of the resilience variable prove to be adequate predictors when associated with the empathy dimensions, the ecological dimension of resilience positively predicts the perspective-taking dimension of empathy. In contrast, the adaptation dimension negatively predicts the compassionate care dimension of empathy, with no statistically significant relationship in the engineering dimension. Conclusion Individual resilience is a variable that can predict empathetic behavior in nursing students from the studied Faculty of Nursing.