Objective To explore the effects of emotional intelligence and communication satisfaction on clinical nurses’ empathy. Methods The general information questionnaire,the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals,Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale and Interpersonal Communication Satisfaction Scale were used to investigate 1,475 nurses in a tertiary general hospital in Henan province. AMOS 21.0 software was used to establish the model and conduct path analysis. Results Clinical nurses’ communication satisfaction was positively correlated with their empathic ability（r=0.519,P<0.001）,and communication satisfaction was positively correlated with their emotional intelligence（r=0.568,P<0.001）. There was a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and empathy（r=0.346,P<0.001）. Direct positive effect of emotional intelligence on communication satisfaction was found（β=0.686,P<0.05）. The communication satisfaction was directly correlated with empathy ability（β=0.510,P<0.05）. There was no effect of empathy ability on emotional intelligence（β=0.010,P>0.05）. However,empathy intelligence was correlated with empathy ability through communication satisfaction（total effect：0.360）. Conclusion Nursing managers should take measures to enhance nurses’ communication satifaction,so as to give full play to the mediating role of communication satisfaction in emotional intelligence and empathy ability.