There is a lack of empathy studies in professional practice contexts, in human resource development programs, and throughout the professional education process.

Aim: To analyze the empathizing and systemizing profiles of Brazilian and Portuguese nursing undergraduates. Background: Empathy is a fundamental skill for nursing practice and should be analyzed during the student’s education. Methods: Descriptive study with cross-sectional design. Participants were 968 undergraduate students, including 215 (22.2%) Brazilians from a university in the state of São Paulo and 753 (77.8%) Portuguese students from a higher education institution in central Portugal. The Portuguese and Brazilian versions of the Empathizing/Systemizing Quotient have good internal consistency and reliability. Ethical considerations: In Brazil, approval for the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing (protocol 191/2016) and in Portugal, from the Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, Coimbra Higher School of Nursing (protocol P362-09/2016). Results: Most (86%) participants were female and aged between 20 and 24 years. In the general profile analysis between both groups, the domains “Social Skills,” “Contents,” and “Processes” scored higher. Gender differences exist for the feeling of empathy and systemizing, as women scored better on the short version of the Empathy Quotient and men on the Systemizing Quotient. Conclusion: As demonstrated in the domain scores for “Social Skills,” “Contents,” and “Processes,” the undergraduate nursing students analyzed have the ability to deal intuitively and spontaneously with social situations; they are also characterized as methodical people, who like to follow rules, and experience practice better than theory, and the women have a higher empathetic level than men, who in turn are more systemizing.

Objective: analyze available evidence in the literature on the measuring of empathy levels in nursing undergraduates. Method: integrative literature review developed in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL and LILACS in September 2017. Results: among the 40 primary studies analyzed, 21 questionnaires were identified to measure the empathy levels of nursing undergraduates. Conclusion: different tools exist that are considered reliable to analyze the empathy level among nursing undergraduates.

Objectives: to analyze nursing actions involving health advocacy in the context of primary health care and the consolidation of this right to health. Methods: this is an integrative literature review with content analysis of the results on health advocacy and its relationship with nursing in the context of primary health care. Results: the content analysis of the seven selected studies resulted in two thematic categories: “Right to health - a complex and progressive consolidation movement in Brazil” and “Advocacy in health and nursing”. Conclusions: despite the difficulties in defining the concept of health advocacy, nurses, in their practice, act with innovative alternatives to daily conflicts, exercising the users’ right to health in their relationships with health team members and the community.