Abstract

Background: Nurse’s empathy is one of the major parameters to improve the quality of provided health care known for the patient and it has a significant effect on reducing physical and psychological symptoms in patients. However, it has shown that over time and by increasing the background of nurses, their empathy is reducing. However, there is no research to investigate the Mu Suppression that is an indicator of the performance of mirror neurons that is a basis of empathy sense in the brain. So, the aim of this study is to investigate the difference between reported empathy and Mu suppression among nurses with three years of work background. Methods: So, a total of 39 male nurse were chosen by available sampling that 15 of them has about 3 years working experience more than other’s 15 people, Data collection tool was empathy questionnaire of Jefferson’s health professionals. Mirror neurons’ activation was investigated by Mu suppression. So, EEG was recorded in three situations including: 1) watching a video of a motionless hand, 2) watching a video of a hand that is opening and closing and 3) moving their own hand. Results: The results of MANOVA analysis indicated that although Mu suppression among nurses with more background is less, but this difference is not significant. Also, there is no significant difference between the reported empathy scores by nurses among two groups Conclusions: These results indicate that three years of work experience don’t have an effect on empathy reduction.

Key words: Nurse, patient, physical and psychological.