The word meaning of empathy, which originates from the Greek word “empathia”, is the ability to understand. Understanding empathy can facilitate the relationship building phase in initiating the therapeutic process, maximizing personal interactions with others, and developing diagnostic and treatment materials. In this context, it is inevitable to have positive returns for both the patient and the healthcare worker. When the literature is examined, studies evaluating empathic skills in our country were mostly conducted with nurses and student groups, and no study examining the empathic skills of audiologists was found. For this reason, this study was carried out to determine the empathic skill levels of audiologists who provide health services in many different fields and are in constant communication with patients or healthy individuals. 130 audiologists working in different fields were included in this study in order to evaluate the empathic tendencies of audiologists. Personal information form including occupational information, Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS), Empathic Skills Scale (ESS) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (RSI) were applied to the participants. The questionnaires were sent to the participants electronically with Google Forms and the answers were analyzed using the SPSS program. As a result of the study, ETS and ESS scores of female audiologists were significantly higher than the mean of ETS and ESS scores of male audiologists (p<0.05). It was observed that as the education level increased, the empathic tendency and self-esteem scores increased. ETS mean scores of audiologists with doctorate degrees were significantly higher than those of undergraduate audiologists (p<0.05). As a result of the study, it was determined that audiologists have a high empathic tendency, but they are less successful in their empathic skills. Educational programs should be implemented in a way that will strengthen students' personal and social skills and enable them to communicate effectively with their patients. Empathy and communication trainings to transform the empathetic tendency of audiologists into empathic skills will contribute to the success of audiologists in their fields of work.

Keywords: Audiologist; Empathic tendency; Empathetic skill and Self-esteem.