Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Ability to Empathize 1 Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Ability to Empathize: A Qualitative Study Anne K. Heggestad, Per Nortvedt, Bjorg Christiansen, & Anne-Sophie Konow-Lund University of Oslow. Oslow, Norway Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway Author Note The authors received no financial support for this research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Rebecca CrossEvidence Based Practice Assignment First time nursing students frequently have conflicting emotions when faced with empathy in their first clinical rotation. Empathy is defined as the process of understanding and sharing feelings of another. In nursing, empathy helps to meet a patient's needs when it comes to focusing on patient centered care. Conflict arises when the fear of indifference coincides with a nurse’s ability to empathize. The journal article, Undergraduate nursing student’s ability to empathize: A qualitative study, discusses the differences between the experienced nurse to nursing students and the conflicting feelings of empathy and indifference and how it effects patient centered care (Heggestad, A.K., Nortvedt, P., Christiansen, B., Konow-Lund, A.S., 2018). The research article states “nursing students expressed that experienced nurses “got used” to demanding situations and therefor seemed “blind” to a patient’s suffering” (Heggestad, A.P. et al,, 2018, pg. 792). The practice of balancing empathy and indifference is essential when it comes to patient centered care and the influence of experienced nurses versus new nursing students The problem the research article is addressing is nursing student’s ability to empathize and how it effects patient centered care. The nursing students that had participated in the study expressed feelings of fear when it came to their emotions dealing with patients who were suffering. Nursing students in the study were surprised by the strong inner emotions brought on by patient suffering, although the students expressed a stronger fear of becoming indifferent to patient suffering, Indifference is defined as lack of interest, concern, or sympathy. Experienced nurses are often accused of developing indifferent attitudes towards patient’s, which can lead to diminishment in patient care, especially in adult care facilities. Desensitization of death & disease is common in healthcare.Empathy is significant in nursing because it can make nurses aware of specific clues to what a patient is feeling. The process of feeling the pain that another person is feeling is one quality that makes people human. According to psychologist’s, empathy overload is also a human response (Cummings, D., 2014). Empathy over load can lead nurses to develop coping skills to protect their emotions. Examples of coping skills for empathy overload are physical & emotional distancing according to Denise Cummings PhD (Cummings, D., 2014). In nursing this can be detrimental to a patient’s recovery, in turn leading to patient’s feelings of abandonment, distrust, and anger. These negative feelings are NOT the foundations of patient centered care. According to Neurolmage the thalamus and cerebellum parts of the brain effected by emotions according to subjects’ reactivity to the pain of others and are directly related between perc pain in a patient and experiencing it oneself (Jackson, Meltzoff, & Decety., 2015), Overstimulation of these two parts of the brain can lead to empathy overload with an end result of desensitized nurses. The research findings in the qualitative study suggest that new nursing. students are fearful of developing indifference ‘The findings of the research article elicited a plethora of different emotions among new nursing students, The research findings in article Undergraduate nursing student’s ability to ‘empathize: A qualitative study, were nursing students’ expressions of “shock, sadness, anger, pity, worry, and compassion on behalf of the patients’ suffering” (Heggestad, A.P. et al, 2018, pg. 798). One consistent finding of the study were the feelings of skepticism on how to handle such deep emotions. The question to be answered is “ how do nursing students balance overwhelming feelings of empathy, while upholding professional standards of patient centered care, and at the same time not becoming desensitized to a patient suffering which can lead to negative feeling among patients and ineffective patient care among desensitized nurses?”