Abstract: Objective To investigate the empathy ability of college students majoring in nursing,and analyze its correlation with personality characteristics and the factors related to it,with the aim of providing reference for training nursing students' empathy ability. Methods Select,with cluster sampling method,740 Shenyang Medical College undergraduates and higher vocational nursing students as the research object.And perform the investigation on nursing students' empathy ability with the general information questionnaire,the Interpersonal Reactivity index-c and big five personality scale,to research on the students' empathy ability and the factors related. Results This group of nursing students got (53.46±8.39) points empathy score,with (2.43±0.38) average items points.T test and single factor variance analysis show that the difference is statistically significant in empathy score of students,grades,father's education level of nursing students(P<0.05),but no significant differences in empathy scores of different gender,level,student cadres,singleton,political affiliation,family economy,family composition,mother of different cultural levels of nursing students(P>0.05).Empathy and personality traits and each angle of nursing students are 136.18±10.06,average item score is 3.10±0.23;the majority of empathy dimensions are correlated with personality dimensions (P<0.05);hierarchical regression analysis shows that personality characteristics can explain 12% of the variation independent of empathy. Conclusion The empathy ability of nursing students is in the middle level,and the personality characteristics are important factors affecting empathy.In school education,teachers should actively enlarge their strength of personality traits to exert a subtle influence on the students,preparing for their future career.