Introduction: Empathy is a conscious effort to understan another person's story and it a
fundamental element of the therapeutic relationship and an integral part of patient's
perception of quality health care. We describe empathic healthcare as the ability of the
healthcare provider to understand the patient's expericne and not judge them. Empathic
healthcare, however affects a highet level of satistfaction with care, better clinical outcomes, effective healing and stress. Nursing as a profession is unique and has advantages and disvantages. One of the disadvantages is that we have to develop our way of working carefully and wisely and imitating other profession is out of the question, but the advantages is that nursing is developing as a special and unique discipline. Empathy in nursing is defined as a professionalo condition, a huma trait, a special relationship and a process of communication. Neurosurgery is a broad field of a surgical treatment of diseases of the central and peripheral nevrous system, which includes: dementia, epilepsy, headache and headache disorders, multiple sclerosis, neuroinfections, pain associated with neurological disorders, Parkinson's disease, stroke, traumatic brain injuries and tumors. Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to determine the importance of nurses' empathy in neurosurgical patients and how it is included in communication.Methods: We used a descriptive research method using a literature review which was searched in databases CINAHL, PubMed-Medline, Wiley, Google scholar, Cobis and archival journals of Obzornikand Zdravniški vestnik. We used key words in Slovenian and English: »neurosurgery«, »patient«, »medical care«, »neurosurgery«, »patients«, »empathy«, »nursing«. We used Boolean logical operatos
(and, or, not). Results: a high level of emapthy in healthcare results in better clinical
outcomes that reduce stress, improve self-esteem, reduce anxiety in depression and lowers complication rates. Discussion and conclusion: In addition to the anxiety and stress experienced by patients an empatic attitude leads to better trust in healthcare workers. Empathic attitude of healthcare workers towards patients also affect better long – term cooperation, as patients advise healthcare workers if they feel that the healthcare workers understands them and treats them empathcally.
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