Empathy among Midwives at a Referral Hospital in Uganda

Abstract Background Empathy is an essential component of a caring relationship and critical to the provision of quality midwifery care. An empathetic approach enables midwives to understand each client’s perspectives, and is therefore fundamentally important to the provider-client relationship and improved healthcare outcomes. Many lack the capacity to provide empathic care, though it can be taught and reinforced in midwifery education. Objective To assess the levels of empathy among midwives working on an Obstetrical and Gynecology unit in a Uganda referral hospital. Methods This was a cross sectional study that was conducted among 185 midwives at a referral hospital in Uganda. Empathy was assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for health professionals (JSE- HP). Item scores were summated to generate total scores. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize empathy scores and other continuous variables. Nominal variables were summarized using frequencies and percentages. Chi-square tests were conducted to determine whether empathy scores differed significantly for different categories of variables and statistical significance was considered at a p-value Results Participant empathy scores ranged from 32 to 121 with a mean of 93.6 (± 14.93). Slightly over fifty percent (53.5%) of the participants had scores higher than the mean. scores compared to those who had low workload (χ2 = 3.750, p = 0.05). Conclusion The empathy level of midwives in this study was lower than medical and Dental students in other studies. An empathic culture in the Obstetrics & Gynecology Department is needed to enhance empathic care to clients and colleagues.