Health Commun.  2022 Jun;17(1):49-56. 10.15715/kjhcom.2022.17.1.49.

Mediating effect of empathy on the relationship between bullying and clinical competency among nursing students

• Park MK
• Lee EK

• KMID: 2536285
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15715/kjhcom.2022.17.1.49

Abstract

Purpose
: The purpose of this study was to identify mediating effect of empathy between bullying and clinical competency in nursing students.
Methods
: The subjects of this study were a total of 140 fourth-grade nursing students in five universities located in D city of South Korea. Data were collected from March 12 to April 17 in 2019 using structured questionnaires and analyzed with IBM SPSS 25.0 program. Data were analyzed by the independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and regression following the Baron and Kenny method and Sobel test for identifying mediating effects.
Results
: Bullying was negatively correlated with empathy (r=-.40, p<.001) and clinical competency (r=-.46, p<.001). Empathy was positively correlated with clinical competency (r=.45, p<.001). Furthermore, empathy completely had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between bullying and clinical competency.
Conclusion
: Based on the results of this study, the empathy of nursing students is very valuable. To improve the clinical performance of nursing students, efforts to reduce the experience of bullying and improve empathy should be continued.

Keyword

Clinical competency; Bullying; Empathy; Nursing students