Although there are studies showing that empathic concern and perspective taking is well correlated with a better outcome of therapy, little is known about the “natural history” of empathy in health care professionals. Within a transversal design, this study attempted to estimate the evolution of empathy components in nurses.

Using Davis's “organizational model”, we administered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to 127 nursing students and nurses of both genders, working in various medical fields. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated for the 4 scores and variables such as age, years of experience, and the medians of the scores were compared for gender, marital status, number of children, number of brothers and sisters.

significant negative correlations were found between fantasy and personal distress scales, and age and years of experience. Women had higher scores of all 4 components. Significant correlations between scores were found as well.

apparently, nurses have different patterns of empathy than doctors (who have shown an increased personal distress over time in previous studies). Women are more empathic and e.