title: Relationship Between Empathy and Well-Being Among Emergency Nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A large number of patients who are in pain upon arriving at the emergency department are still in pain when they are discharged. It is suggested that nurses' personal traits and their level of empathy can explain in part this issue in pain management. The purpose of this study was to better understand the shortfalls in pain management provided by emergency nurses by considering nurses' characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was used for this pilot study. French validated self-administrated questionnaires (sociodemographic characteristics, empathy, psychological distress, and well-being) were presented to 40 emergency nurses. Thirty emergency nurses completed all questionnaires during work hours. Descriptive statistics, group comparisons, and correlation analyses were used for the data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Emergency nurses appear to have low levels of empathy. High levels of psychological distress and low levels of well-being were also observed in our sample. Among these variables, only empathy and well-being appear to be related, because we found higher empathy scores in nurses with higher well-being.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The poor mental health we found among emergency nurses is alarming. A clear need exists for supportive interventions for nurses. Finally, well-being was the only variable related to empathy. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report this relationship in nurses.
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada. Electronic address: Patricia.Bourgault@USherbrooke.ca.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bourgault
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lavoie
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paul-Savoie
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Maryse
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grégoire
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Michaud
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Celeste C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Johnston
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016529:Emergency Nursing; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D059408:Pain Management / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Distress; Emergency nurse; Empathy; Pain management; Well-being