On the nature and place of empathy in clinical nursing practice.

Empathy has long been thought of as a fundamental component of nurse-patient interactions. Despite the central role empathy has been accorded, understanding how the concept is operationalized in practice is difficult. A review of nursing literature on empathy is presented to help clarify the concept, and an analysis is given concerning the relationship of empathy to recent findings on expert caring in nursing. Vignettes are presented as illustrations of the concepts discussed.