Investigating the Relationship between Family Needs and Nurses' Empathy in Inpatient Emergency Departments: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: The mission of the emergency department involves addressing the needs ofpatients and their families. Empathy between nurses and patients' families plays a crucial role inmanaging anxiety. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the needs of patients' f amilies andtheir relationship with the empathy of nurses working in inpatient emergency departments ofKurdistan University of Medical Sciences hospitals.Methods: This cr oss sectional study was conducted in the year 2023 , utilizing conveniencesampling. The study sample consisted of 427 hospitalized patients from inpatient emergencydepartments at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences hospitals. Data collection w as carr iedout through the administration of two questionnaires: CCFNI EDED1 and BLRIBLRI2. To explore therelationships between variables, linear or logistic regression analysis was employed. The dataanalysis was performed using STATA version 16 software, an d a signi ficance level of 0.05 wasconsidered to determine statistical significanceResults: The results of this study showed a relatively high average score of 114.42 for the needsof patients' families. Furthermore, the findings indicated a moderate level of emp athy (mean ±SD = 4.73 ± 0.54) among nurses. There was a significant statistical rel ationship between thescore of patients' family needs and some demographic variables such as age and gender(P>0.05). Additionally, there was a significant statistical rela tionship between levels of empathyand the gender of the accompanying person, durati on of care by the companion, and history of care (P>0.05). However, no significant statistical relationship was found between levels ofempathy and levels of family needs ( P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study revealed high levels of patients' fam ily needs and amoderate level of empathy among nurses. Therefore, in order to enhance the quality of care inthe emergency department, nurses should address the needs of p atients' families and improvetheir empathy levels with them in inpatient emergency settings.

Investigating the Relationship between Family Needs and Nurses' Empathy in Inpatient Emergency Departments: A Cross Sectional Study Keywords:

Empathy , Nurses , E mergency D epartment