Empathy Training and Its Effect on Maternity Nurses' Communication Skills

Empathy Training: Its Effect on Maternity Nurses' Communication and Parturient Women's Perception of Empathetic Care

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of empathy skills training on Maternity Nurses' Communication and Parturient Women's Perception of Empathetic Care.

The main questions it aims to answer are;

• Do maternity nurses who received empathy skills training have better empathetic communication skills when caring with parturient women than those who don't.?
• Do parturient women who received care from maternity nurses trained with empathy skills training perceive higher empathy level than mothers who received care from untrained nurses?

Participants will:

• Have 3 educational training sessions on empathy communication skills.
• Will be followed by the researcher for any clarifications about the educational content of session
• nurses will be asked to evaluate their empathy communication skills twice (once before training and second time after training) .

also parturient women will be asked to assess their maternity nurses' empathy care level twice (once before training and second time after training).

Empathy is one of the elements that influence compassionate skills which required for building a meaningful relationship between maternity nurse and the patient requires. Empathy is particularly important to maternity nurse and allows them to understand things from a woman's angle. Indeed, nurses with high-empathy are able to comprehend the feelings of women, which are very beneficial, particularly during some stages of childbirth when women may not want to talk or in situations where verbal communication is not possible. However, providing effective and empathic communication between maternity nurse and mothers increases satisfaction and control over delivery and reduces blood pressure, anxiety, pain, and fear of childbirth.

This study used a quasi-experimental (one group pre/posttest) . it will be conducted at three health settings at Mansoura city, Egypt and will involve 45 maternity nurses and 120 parturient women. Maternity nurses will be trained on empathic communication skills.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Be currently employed in a maternity care setting Labor & Delivery Unit.
• Have direct patient contact with parturient women as a primary part of their regular duties.
• Have a minimum of 6 months of experience.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Nurses whose primary role is administrative, managerial without direct patient care responsibilities.
• Have previously participated in a pilot or feasibility study for the same or a highly similar intervention.
• Planned absence (e.g., extended leave, vacation) for a significant portion of the study intervention or data collection period.