The Effects of Self-efficacy, Communication ability and Empathy on Ego Resilience of Nursing Students

Abstract

Objectives: This descriptive study was conducted to identify the effects of self-efficacy, communication ability, and empathy on the ego resilience of nursing students. Methods: The participants were 184 nursing students in South Korea who have experience in clinical practices. Data were collected from November 20 to December 7, 2019. Descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical regression were used with IBM SPSS/WIN 22.0 Statistics Program for data analysis. Results: The mean score was, for self-efficacy, 3.46 for communication ability, 3.81 for empathy, 2.54, and ego resilience, 3.50. It was found that there were significant differences in ego resilience depending on the grade (t = -2.58, p = 0.011) and personality (t = -3.25, p = 0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy, communication ability, empathy, and ego resilience. The significant variables which influence ego resilience were self-efficacy (β = 0.30, p < 0.001), communication ability (β = 0.20, p = 0.018) and, empathy (β = 0.18, p = 0.010) were found to be the factors that influence ego resilience with the explanation power of 32.4%. Conclusions: In conclusion, these results suggest a need to increase the efforts of nursing schools to increase the ego resilience of nursing students. It is necessary to develop and apply ego resilience improvement programs based on self-efficacy, communication ability, and empathy for nursing students in college.