Empathetic Skills Research Articles

The Need for Cosmopolitan Literacy in a Global Age: Implications for Teaching Literature

AbstractGiven the realities of this increasingly connected, complex, and conflicting age, governments and policymakers around the world are recognizing the importance of global education. The field of literacy has not been immune to the pressure to globalize. Today, the notion of literacy must account not merely for social processes but also for global processes. The global turn in literacy studies affirms the cultural and linguistic diversity of students and acknowledges the need to empower them with a plurality of literacies—critical, digital, information, and multilingual literacies, among others—to prepare them for future workplaces. Among the range of new literacies, the most fundamental is cosmopolitan literacy because it entails critical, aesthetic, and empathetic skills and dispositions needed to engage with diverse values in our globalized world. In this commentary, the author discusses the principles informing cosmopolitan literacy and how it can be developed through literature.

Mediation

Mediation

Artificial Intelligence in Service

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping service by performing various tasks, constituting a major source of innovation, yet threatening human jobs. We develop a theory of AI job replacement to address this double-edged impact. The theory specifies four intelligences required for service tasks—mechanical, analytical, intuitive, and empathetic—and lays out the way firms should decide between humans and machines for accomplishing those tasks. AI is developing in a predictable order, with mechanical mostly preceding analytical, analytical mostly preceding intuitive, and intuitive mostly preceding empathetic intelligence. The theory asserts that AI job replacement occurs fundamentally at the task level, rather than the job level, and for “lower” (easier for AI) intelligence tasks first. AI first replaces some of a service job’s tasks, a transition stage seen as augmentation, and then progresses to replace human labor entirely when it has the ability to take over all of a job’s tasks. The progression of AI task replacement from lower to higher intelligences results in predictable shifts over time in the relative importance of the intelligences for service employees. An important implication from our theory is that analytical skills will become less important, as AI takes over more analytical tasks, giving the “softer” intuitive and empathetic skills even more importance for service employees. Eventually, AI will be capable of performing even the intuitive and empathetic tasks, which enables innovative ways of human–machine integration for providing service but also results in a fundamental threat for human employment.

Didactic Content and Experiential Aging Simulation for Developing Patient-Centered Strategies and Empathy for Older Adults.

The number of people over 65 years of age is increasing, and many of those individuals will have sensorineural hearing loss in addition to other chronic health conditions. Future hearing health care providers need to be sensitive to the needs of elderly patients. The purpose of this article is to describe an experiential learning curriculum used in the Doctor of Audiology program in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The curriculum uses simulations of sensory disorders common in the elderly to transform knowledge and active experience into patient-centered, empathetic counseling skills and strategies to use with older adults with hearing loss.

Report on Financial Investments of Italian Households. Behavioural Attitudes and Approaches - 2017 Survey

The third CONSOB Report on financial investments of Italian households surveys individuals’ attitudes towards the whole range of behaviours relevant to financial control, savings accumulation and savings use with a focus on investment choices and demand for financial advice. After a cross-country comparison, showing (among the others) a slightly rising gross saving rate in Italy that however continues to rank below to both the euro area average and its historical level (Section 1), the Report surveys first of all the level of financial knowledge of Italian households (Section 2). The level of financial knowledge of Italian households remains largely unsatisfactory, while assessing the risk of the most known financial products is a challenge for more than one-third of respondents. Inconsistencies between self-assessed and actual knowledge ranges from 32% to 41% of the sample, generally accounting for individuals prone to an ‘upward mismatch’, i.e. reporting to have understood the selected financial notions while being unable to define them. For about 50% of the respondents, mainly low financially literate, engagement with one’s personal finances triggers feelings of anxiousness. However, learning about financial matters is deemed to be interesting by half of the interviewees, and even more when respondents are elicited about the usefulness of financial matters to a specific task (e.g., choosing a financial advisor). Not surprisingly, individual financial background is mainly triggered by personal interest, followed by experience in household budgeting. Interest and financial anxiety seem to play a role in individuals’ attitude towards financial control and saving (Section 3). Only about one fourth of the interviewees have a financial plan and monitor it, while more than half of respondents report to have a budget, although only 13% always stuck to it and only 20% properly track spending. More than 60% of respondents report to save, mainly for precautionary reasons, while the remaining is prevented from accumulating by either tight budget constraints or indebtedness (at the end of 2016, about 40% of households carry debt, either mortgages and/or consumer credit for consumer good purchase and daily expenses). Financial control and saving are more frequently associated to high financial knowledge (both actual and perceived) and interest in financial matters, while anxiety plays the other way round. As for investment choices, at the end of 2016 45% of respondents hold at least one financial instrument (Section 4). Propensity to participate in financial markets is positively correlated with financial knowledge, interest in financial matters, optimism and trust in financial intermediaries. Vice versa, inclination towards financial anxiety seems to discourage investments. As for investment styles, more than half of the interviewees rely on the support of family, friends and colleagues when making investment choices (so called informal advice), whereas the remaining either rely on a professional expert (by seeking for advice or delegating portfolio management; one-fourth of the sample) or manage their investments on their own. Understanding the investment decision process, both in its ex-ante and ex-post dimensions, is not widespread, given that 41% of the interviewees do not consider either their objectives or time horizon or emotional and financial risk capacity before investing, while three-quarters of the remaining respondents refer only to one out of five items (mainly the holding period). As for financial advice retail investors mainly receive passive or generic advice, with only one third of the advisees getting personalised recommendations (Section 5). The choice of the advisor is mainly driven by confidence, along with the recommendation from the investment firm, while empathetic skills keep being important when defining what to expect from professionals, beyond performance. Advisees do not seem aware of the characteristics of the service received. Indeed, more than 40% of them are not able to indicate how their advisors are compensated, while 37% report that the service is free. Finally, the Report focuses on how individuals use financial information when approaching to an investment choice (Section 6). More than 40% of the investors report to read information about financial products, either on their own (25%) or with the support of family and friends (10%) or with the help of their advisors. About half of the respondents are not willing to invest in the recommended product if they don’t understand the available financial information, while in 27% of the cases, willingness to invest regardless of understanding is triggered by trust and familiarity with the intermediary.

Enhancing Student Empathetic Engagement, History-Taking, and Communication Skills During Electronic Medical Record Use in Patient Care

To examine whether an intervention on proper use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in patient care could help improve medical students' empathic engagement, and to test the hypothesis that the training would reduce communication hurdles in clinical encounters. Seventy third-year medical students from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University were randomly divided into intervention and control groups during their six-week pediatric clerkship in 2012-2013. The intervention group received a one-hour training session on EMR-specific communication skills, including discussion of EMR use, the SALTED mnemonic and technique (Set-up, Ask, Listen, Type, Exceptions, Documentation), and role-plays. Both groups completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) at the clerkship's start and end. At clerkship's end, faculty and standardized patients (SPs) rated students' empathic engagement in SP encounters, using the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy (JSPPPE), and their history-taking and communication skills. Faculty mean ratings on the JSPPPE, history-taking skills, and communication skills were significantly higher for the intervention group than the control group. SP mean ratings on history-taking skills were significantly higher for the intervention group than the control group. Both groups' JSE mean scores increased pretest to posttest, but the changes were not significant. The intervention group's posttest JSE mean score was higher than the control group's, but the difference was not significant. The findings suggest that a simple intervention providing specialized training in EMR-specific communication can improve medical students' empathic engagement in patient care, history-taking skills, and communication skills.

The effect of personality traits on undergraduate dental students' performance in multiple mini interviews.

BackgroundMultiple mini interviews (MMI) is a structured student selection method where applicants rotate around a series of stations that do not require previously learned knowledge. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a tool often used to measure personality traits commonly used in applicant selection.ObjectiveThe aim of the current study was to assess the effect of personality traits using the BFI on undergraduate dental students’ performance in MMI.MethodsThis research was conducted at The Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. All undergraduates applying to the dental program at King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Dentistry (KAUFD) in two academic years [(2014–2015) and (2015–2016)] undertook the MMI held at KAUFD and completed the BFI inventory with a total number of 350 students. The MMI consisted of five stations while the BFI contained forty-four items. Data were analysed by SPSS version 20, using independent-samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient and Chi-square test.Resultsfemale students scored higher than their male counterparts but scores were only significant in the empathy station (p<0.001) in the first year, and in both empathetic skills and team work abilities (p<0.05) in the second. BFI results indicate that male students scored higher on agreeableness (p<0.003) and lower on neuroticism (p<0.001) in the first year while female students scored higher on agreeableness and conscientiousness (p<0.001) in the second year. Students of private schools had higher total MMI scores compared to those of public schools (p<0.05).ConclusionMMI combined with the Big Five Inventory can be a useful tool in the admission process.

Phil Authier, RN, MPH, and Laurie Shiparski, RN, BSN, MS

Phil Authier and Laurie Shiparski met at an AONE conference many years ago and became colleagues. More recently, they connected personally and have been married for 3 years. They live in Denver, Colorado and enjoy time with their families, walking in nature, and playing golf.

Empathetic and Pro-social Awareness in Primary School Students: A Case Study

The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in a primary English curriculum and noticed whether the curriculum, texts and class activities utilized empathetic and pro-social themes in teaching English language. The findings from the document review, interviews and observations revealed that the said themes were underrepresented in the curriculum, textual content and class activities. Moreover, the teachers also did not demonstrate the required empathetic and pro-social skills in classrooms. The regular English lessons depicted a highly cognitive focus and proved teachers as inadequate role models for the said skills. Data from parents' questionnaires revealed that the stated skills were taught in theory and not in practice. However, when integrated cognitive-affective lessons were used, they brought forth a significant increase in student interest in academic work and raised awareness about the stated themes. The study was significant in terms of raising the importance of the stated skills in an educational set up and proved that a cognitive-affective approach in schools could prepare helpful and caring individuals for the society.

Correlation Between Standardize Patients’ Perceptions of Osteopathic Medical Students and Students’ Self-Rated Empathy

The use of standardized patients (SPs) promotes and enhances interpersonal skill sets of medical students and provides a critical opportunity for students to display their relational competence during simulated patient encounters. To investigate whether SPs' ratings of osteopathic medical students' empathy and interpersonal skills correlate with students' self-rated empathy. The study used a cross-sectional quantitative design. After SP encounters, first-, second-, and third-year osteopathic medical students self-rated empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy medical student version. Standardized patients also assessed students' empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy and interpersonal skills using the Professionalism Assessment Ratings Scale. Of 780 first-, second-, and third-year students, 717 students returned the survey (91.9%). In total, 383 students were women (53.4%) and 334 were men (46.6%). Of 717 SP encounters, SPs returned surveys for 648 encounters (90.3%). Ratings from SPs regarding their perceptions of osteopathic medical students' empathetic abilities and interpersonal skills did not correlate with students' self-rated empathy scores. Second- and third-year students were perceived by SPs as having better-developed empathetic and interpersonal skill sets when compared with first-year students. Results of SPs' ratings indicated that the higher the interpersonal skills, the higher the SP-perceived empathy for students across all years (r=0.66; P<.001). Students' self-rated empathy did not correlate with SP-perceived empathy. However, the findings validated that students' core relational competencies increase as they progress through medical school.

Value-based Healthcare: Part 1-Designing and Implementing Integrated Practice Units for the Management of Musculoskeletal Disease.

Value-based Healthcare: Part 1-Designing and Implementing Integrated Practice Units for the Management of Musculoskeletal Disease.

An Investigation of Empathy of Foster Families, Turkey

Objectives empathy brings people closer and facilitates communication in almost all the fields of daily life. Having been an important dimension of foster care, empathetic skills should be developed in a foster family. In this study, we aimed to determine the empathic level of the foster families. Methods this cross-sectional study on foster families was performed in Turkey. Research data was collected from 124 fosters parents. Two instruments were used in the survey: the personal information form and the Basic Empathy Scale. The volunteers were chosen by applying a non-probability sampling method, i.e. the snowball method. The data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software, Version 18.0. Results, The foster parents had a mean age of 48.37±9.36. Most of foster carers (89.5%) were married. 76.6% of foster families had their biological child, among them, 29.5% had one, 54.7% had two, and 15.8% had three children. The percentage of foster families that preferred female, and male children, were 76.6%, and 23.4%, respectively. Among the children, who had been placed in foster parent households, 42.7% aged less than 3 years, 31.5% between 4-6 years, and 25.8% more than 7 years. The ratio of parents, who defined foster family concept as social responsibility, protection, own age, and charity were 76.6%, 71.1%, 58.1%, and 45.2%, respectively. The ratio of those, who thought that to be a foster carer matured a person, was 62.9%, whereas the ratio of those, who emphasized that they became role model for their environment, was 77.4%. The subjects were asked to empathize with the relevant biological families, and that 59.7% gave first priority to I want to be sure about my child's safety, 29.8% to I want to be sure that my child is in good hands, 7.3% to I want to see that my child is valued. Also 56.5% of foster families pointed out that they were disturbed by the idea that one they the child might be sent back to his/her biological family. General Cronbach's alpha co-efficient of the instrument was found to be.76. The empathy scores of foster families in this study were higher than the average. Despite the fact that the foster families hold higher empathic skills in Turkey, it is observed that this service is still conducted with a traditional perspective. KEYWORDS Foster Family, Foster Children, Empathy Language: en

Understanding empathy training with virtual patients

While the use of virtual characters in medical education is becoming more and more commonplace, an understanding of the role they can play in empathetic communication skills training is still lacking. This paper presents a study aimed at building this understanding by determining if students can respond to a virtual patient’s statement of concern with an empathetic response. A user study was conducted at the University of Florida College of Medicine in which early stage medical students interacted with virtual patients in one session and real humans trained to portray real patients (i.e., standardized patients) in a separate session about a week apart. During the interactions, the virtual and ‘real’ patients presented the students with empathetic opportunities which were later rated by outside observers. The results of pairwise comparisons indicate that empathetic responses made to virtual patients were rated as significantly more empathetic than responses made to standardized patients. Even though virtual patients may be perceived as artificial, the educational benefit of employing them for training medical students’ empathetic communications skills is that virtual patients offer a low pressure interaction which allows students to reflect on their responses.

Becoming transdisciplinary theologians: Wentzel van Huyssteen, Paul Cilliers and Constantine Stanislavski

Firstly, I discuss deferent descriptions of transdisciplinary research and argue that Wentzel van Huyssteen’s postfoundationalist description of epistemology provides a progenitive epistemology for a variety of transdisciplinary engagements. Secondly, I suggest that complexity, as described by Paul Cilliers, can be rooted in a postfoundationalist epistemology and illuminates the facilitation of transdisciplinary research. Based on this description and facilitation of transdisciplinarity, I argue that transdisciplinary theologians need to be skilled empathisers because knowledge is generated and exchanged by embodied agents, embedded in particular disciplines. In a transversal move I suggest that, given contemporary research on empathic skills and the embodied aspects of empathy, Stanislavski’s approach to the training of actors illuminates a way in which we can train transdisciplinary theologians. The training develops empathetic skills through both mental and embodied exercises and equips students to generate empathy in different contexts without following set rules.

Rethinking Education – Emerging Roles for Teachers

The purpose of the study was to find out how teachers role modeled and taught empathetic and pro-social skills at the primary level. The study was qualitative in nature and followed a case study approach. Observations of regular English language classes were done from Grades 1-5 to see if class lessons incorporated the said themes and whether teachers displayed the stated skills in classrooms. Another set of observations were conducted after teachers were requested to highlight empathetic and pro-social themes in texts and activities. The second set of observations noticed if the use of empathetic and pro-social textual materials and activities raised awareness among students about the said themes and affected student interest and teacher behaviour in any way. Teachers were also interviewed to register their thoughts on their own empathetic and pro-social behaviours and their experience of teaching the same in classrooms. The deputy curriculum developer from Grades 1-5 was also interviewed to take her opinion about teachers as appropriate role models to teach the said skills and the time given to the development of such skills in the professional development programmes. The findings established teachers as weak role models for the demonstration of empathetic and pro-social skills in classrooms. However, they successfully incorporated and taught the same skills through texts. The paper encourages teachers to exhibit more empathetic and compassionate skills in classrooms so that students can be equipped with sound academic and affective skills for a more positive assimilation in society at large.

Student midwives transferring knowledge from the online learning environment to role playing a real life scenario

Introduction: The Bachelor of Midwifery offered by the Charles Darwin University is uniquely positioned as the course is predominantly offered as an external online course with minimal face to face interaction. The classroom pedagogical strategy initiated in this instance used a real life coroner’s case by way of a play written based on the case. Aim: To reiterate the importance of communication and consolidation of midwifery knowledge for understanding in the clinical teaching block. Methods: The students were assigned real life players and they re-enacted this case in the classroom with a script written by the lecturer. The students assumed real life players and were able to comment and critique each critical aspect as they participated in this project, making decisions at crucial points throughout a woman’s hospitalization. Results: Midwifery is both a theoretical and clinical profession that encompasses and requires insight from the midwife in both problem solving and empathetic skills. Teaching in an online environment may enhance their insight into problem solving skills by answering questions such as multiple choice questions or answering essays and discussion points and wikis. This may not be evident until the student enacts or role plays a case scenario in real life that further enhances both their verbal communication skills with other health professionals and emphasizes the importance of decision making in the clinical environment. Conclusion: The poster encompasses a picture shot of the students’ re-enactment, the strategy and methods used and the future work and evaluation of this innovative teaching and learning project.

Measurement of Empathy Changes During a Physical Therapistʼs Education and Beyond

INTRODUCTIONEffective therapeutic communication between the health care provider and patient is able to enhance patient care and consequent outcomes. It is widely believed that the most powerful component of therapeutic communication is empathy. Empathy is thought to facilitate trust and disclosure1 and can directly enhance therapeutic outcomes.2 These researchers have found empathy levels, as measured by standardized tools, are not only related to patient outcomes but also to positive and negative changes the health care provider.3-6 Thomas et al3 studied empathy medical students and found higher empathy scores were positively correlated to their quality of life, while lower empathy scores were associated with professional burn out. Provider empathy has been found to lead to the following benefits: (1) improved patient compliance,4 (2) reduced liability risk,5 and (3) improved satisfaction both patients and providers.6Health care providers strive for empathy therapeutic relationships because of how it has been shown to enhance communication, patient outcomes, and patient and provider satisfaction.4'6 Therefore, empathy would appear to be an important concept for health care providers to learn during their professional training, though research the topic is scarce. In the available research, there is limited consensus on the definition of empathy and a lack of established frameworks for teaching the skill of empathetic communication.7 While a consistent definition of empathy across health care professions is difficult to find, this study utilized the definition by Hojat et al,8 which reads: in the context of patient care empathy can be defined as a predominantly cognitive attribute that involves the understanding of patients' experiences, concerns, and perspectives combined with a capacity to communicate this understanding. It is important to acknowledge the definition used this study emphasizes that empathy is primarily a cognitive attribute, which distinguishes empathy from the often mistakenly interchanged concept of sympa- thy. Hojat et al8 defined sympathy as a predominantly affective or emotional attribute that implies shared feelings with the patient and involves intense feelings towards that patients pain and/or suffering. Sympathy is felt to be burdensome to building a therapeutic relationship.9 If both parties share suffering, the health care provider is unable display effective therapeutic communication.Within the physical therapy profession, empathy is valued and included as a component of the core professional values. In the American Physical Therapy Associations (APTA) Professionalism Physical Therapy: Core Values document, empathy is addressed as a component of the following 2 Core Values: compassion/caring and altruism. As defined the Core Values, compassion is the desire to identify with or sense something of another's experience; a precursor of caring. Caring is the concern, empathy, and consideration for the needs and values of others.10 Altruism also addresses empathy and suggests that seeking empathetic understanding is rooted altruism.11,12 The value of empathy and developing effective empathetic communication skills health care providers is apparent within the literature and professional physical therapist (PT) documents. However, the question as to whether educators are imparting this skill to students needs further review.Educators physical therapy are actively involved exploring how to measure and teach the art of caring and the skill of empathetic communication. Within the physical therapy-specific literature, the authors identified 2 studies describing the nature of caring13,14 and 1 study that measured empathy utilizing standardized instruments.15 The 2 studies performed on caring considered differences the meaning of caring to experienced and novice PTs. Both studies used a qualitative method with data obtained from interviews. …

An Investigation of Empathic Skills of Foster Families, Turkey Running Title: Empathic Skills of Foster Families, Turkey

ObjectivesEmpathy brings people closer and facilitates communication in almost all the fields of daily life. Having been an important dimension of foster care, empathetic skills should be developed in a foster family. In this study, we aimed to determine the empathic level of the foster families. MethodsThis cross-sectional study on foster families was performed in Turkey. Research data were collected from 124 fosters parents. Two instruments were used in the survey: the personal information form and the Basic Empathy Scale. The volunteers were chosen by applyinganon-probability sampling method, i.e. the “snowball” method. The data were analyzed by using SPSS statistical software, Version 18.0. ResultsThe foster parents had a mean age of 48.37±9.36. Most of foster carers (89.5%) were married. 76.6% of foster families had their own biological child, among them, 29.5% had one, 54.7% had two, and 15.8% had three children. The percentage of foster families that preferred female, and male children, were 76.6%, and 23.4%, respectively. Among the children, who had been placed in foster parent households, 42.7% agedless than 3 years, 31.5% between 4-6 years, and 25.8% more than 7 years. The ratio of parents, who defined foster family concept as “social responsibility,” “protection,” “ownage,” and “charity” were 76.6%, 71.1%, 58.1%, and 45.2%, respectively. The ratio of those, who thought that to be a foster carer matureda person, was 62.9%, whereas the ratio of those, who emphasized that they became role model for their environment, was 77.4%. The subjects were asked to empathize with the relevant biological families, and that 59.7% gave first priority to “I want to be sure about my child's safety”, 29.8% to “I want to be sure that my child is in good hands”, 7.3% to “I want to see that my child is valued”. Also 56.5% of foster families pointed out that they were disturbed by the idea that one they the child mightbe sent back to his/her biological family. General Cronbach's alpha co-efficient of the instrument was found to be .76. The cognitive empathy of sub-factors was found to be .78, and the emotional empathy of the sub-factors was .62. Basic Empathy Scale average points were 71.52±9.76 in the parents. The mean cognitive empathy was 34.49±5.79, and the mean emotional empathy was 37.03±6.08.

Intensive Care Unit Palliative Care Shortens Hospital Stays

Intensive Care Unit Palliative Care Shortens Hospital Stays

From what isn’t Empathy to Empathic Learning Process

This study was designed to describe and understand empathy, an important skill for individuals to possess in an educational environment and to alleviate conceptual confusion caused by the improper substitution of certain terms for empathy. The research was conducted using the action research method through activities based on empathetic skills in which 35 students participated for a year. The research results show that the concepts substituted for empathy in fact represent stages of the empathetic learning process. While developing empathy, an individual goes through stages such as acting, meaning, imagination, perspective-taking and feeling. An individual who can experience all of these stages can properly develop empathy.