The Relationship of Nursing Students' Emotional Intelligence and Empathy Levels with Privacy Protection Status in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between nursing students’ levels of emotional intelligence, empathy, and their patient privacy protection status in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.Materials and Methods: The data for this descriptive and correlational study were collected from 265 third and fourth year undergraduate students studying at a university’s nursing faculty between February and March 2025. The data were collected with the “Personal Information Form”, “Privacy Protection Scale in Obstetrics and Gynecology”, “The Revised Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale” and “The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire”. Independent samples t test, one-way ANOVA, pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data.Results: Mean of total score of the privacy protection scale in obstetrics and gynecology was 81.85±14.24. In addition, a statistically significant positive correlation was found between the privacy protection scale in obstetrics and gynecology and the revised schutte emotional intelligence scale and the toronto empathy questionnaire.Conclusion: There was a statistically significant relationship between the high level of emotional intelligence and empathy in nursing students and the high level of awareness of protecting privacy in obstetrics and gynecology. Based on this result, we can recommend that it is important to take into account students’ levels of emotional intelligence and empathy in the evaluation and development of students’ privacy awareness.