Empathic Competence Research Articles

Clinical empathy with cancer patients: a content analysis of oncology nurses' perception.

BackgroundEmpathy is one of the most important communication skills in clinical practice, specifically in the field of oncology. Empathic competences have a significant meaning for caring and therapeutic relations in nurses’ responsibilities. Clinical empathy brings positive performance, thus patients’ emotions are perceived and expressed more easily. Clinical empathy is contextual, interpersonal and affective, but it is also difficult to study. Awareness of oncology nurses’ perception of this phenomenon might help them to plan for more effective patient-centered consultations within interventional programs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the content of clinical empathy with cancer patients from the perspective of oncology nurses.Patients and methodsIn this qualitative study, 15 oncology nurses were selected by purposive sampling. A semi-structured face-to-face interview was conducted with each of the participants. After data collection, all interviews were transcribed and reviewed, and then primary codes, sub-categories and categories were extracted. The data were analyzed with the conventional content analysis method by MAXQDA 10 software.ResultsClinical empathy showed a composite construct with five main categories, including co-presence (physical and emotional presence), metacognition (self-awareness of mental processes), perception (knowing about awareness of individuals), inherent (genetic) and didactic (instructive) nature.ConclusionClinical empathy as an effective strategy can be taught through three areas of “co-presence”, “metacognition” and “perception” in the context of cancer care. Thus, clinical empathy should be considered as one of the competency standards which can be taught to oncology nurses.

Curriculum Framework for Empathic communication Competence

Curriculum Framework for Empathic communication Competence

Statistical Validation of the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale-Japanese Version (SHAS-J)

Aim: This study aimed to determine the reliability and validity of the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale-Japanese Version (SHAS-J). Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 764 nurses working in 32 emergency departments across Japan and 302 (39.5%) of them responded effectively. The questionnaires collected demographic data about the nurses and the SHAS-J. Data were evaluated with Cronbach’s alpha along with exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, and correlation analyses. Results: Factor analysis of the SHAS-J resulted in extraction of four factors. The four factors comprised “low empathic practice competence”, “care futility”, “lack of active understanding” and “ignorance about rights and responsibilities”. Cronbach’s alpha for the four factors were 0.83-0.54. Conclusion: The reliability and validity of the SHAS-J were approximately verified.

Empathy in nursing. Assumptions, practice and its empirical determinants

AbstractIntroduction. In the subject literature there were five conceptual dimensions of empathy defined which were specified as a human trait, the basis of professional work, communication process, a manifestation of concern and the special relations. Empathy is the essence of understanding the other person in nursing. The empathic competences have a significant meaning for building caring and therapeutic relations in the work of nurses.Aim. An indication of the essence of empathy in nursing in the aspect of theoretical assumptions and practical activities together with its selected empirical determinants.Method. Topic and unsystematic review of literature looking at the last 30 years. The analysis carried out by the authors of the research included 55 sources.Results. The study of empathy in nursing quite often used the concept formulated by Neuman team and a definition of empathy coined by Mercer and Reynolds, resulting from the concept : “Empathy involves ability (…) (a) to understand the perspective of patient’s situation and feelings and related meanings; (b) conveying information about understanding patient’s state and checking their determinants; and (c) to act within the closeness agreement with a patient in the way consistent with the therapeutic assumptions. Research studies indicate that nurses in general have quite high levels of empathy which positively influences the process of communication with patients and their families and dealing with patients who have psychosocial problems.Summary. Empathy model most often used in nursing is based on the relations in the communication process. Empathy has positive influence over the quality of relations between nurses and patients, as well as the quality of nursing care. The empathic competences of nurses require system education and professional development with use of training and other active forms.

The Use of "Literary Fiction" to Promote Mentalizing Ability.

Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people’s emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner’ s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia.

ID 46 – Human and animal-directed empathy during social interactions: A multi-method approach with hemodynamic (fNIRS), electrocortical (EEG) and autonomic measures

Objective Our relationships are characterized by interactions with other humans, but also with animal companions. Such interactions are mediated by empathic competencies which, however, conventionally refers to emotional concerns for another person. Research revealed that human–animal relationships provide opportunities to increase empathy, but the presence of animal-directed empathy and its neural correlates have still to be explored. The present study aimed to investigate common and specific neural correlates while viewing intra and interspecies interactions, with particular attention to their valence, and to personality components. Methods Participants were submitted to positive, negative and neutral pictures while hemodynamic (NIRS), electrocortical (EEG) and autonomic measures (heart rate, HR; electrodermal activity, EDA) were simultaneously recorded. Results Data showed the presence of common patterns of activation for both interactions (human- and animal-directed), suggesting they are not mutually exclusive, but differentially predominant. Anyway the presence of some differences also emerged, suggesting the way we process different interactions may also be specific. Conclusions Results suggest that empathy is not a response we save for our conspecific, but can also be extended to animals. Key message The presence of homologous but also partially differentiated channels for the development of empathic competencies through types of interactions was underlined.

How do you think she feels? Vulnerability in empathy and the role of attention in school-aged children born extremely preterm.

The aim of this study was to examine empathic competence in children born extremely preterm (EP, <28weeks) given vulnerabilities in social relationships. Empathy in typically developing children is mediated by executive functions. Executive functioning is also impaired in preterm children. Of particular interest in this study are the attentional components of executive functioning as mediators of empathic development. Thirty-two 7-year-old EP children and 40 age-matched term children participated in the Project K.I.D.S program and completed the Kids Empathy Development Scale (KEDS), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), and Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch). Children born extremely preterm exhibited poorer performance on all measures. The mediating role of attention in empathy competence was not supported by mediation modelling when FSIQ was controlled. As predicted, the EP group showed weaker empathic development relative to typically developing children. They also showed poorer attentional abilities. However, the effect of preterm birth on empathy was not mediated by executive-level attention. The cognitive mechanisms underpinning poor empathy competence in EP children remain unclear. Future research needs to examine the role of inhibition, social-emotional recognition, and regulation.

Empathic competencies in violent offenders

Violent offending has often been associated with a lack of empathy, but experimental investigations are rare. The present study aimed at clarifying whether violent offenders show a general empathy deficit or specific deficits regarding the separate subcomponents. To this end, we assessed three core components of empathy (emotion recognition, perspective taking, affective responsiveness) as well as skin conductance response (SCR) in a sample of 30 male violent offenders and 30 healthy male controls. Data analysis revealed reduced accuracy in violent offenders compared to healthy controls only in emotion recognition, and that a high number of violent assaults was associated with decreased accuracy in perspective taking for angry scenes. SCR data showed reduced physiological responses in the offender group specifically for fear and disgust stimuli during emotion recognition and perspective taking. In addition, higher psychopathy scores in the violent offender group were associated with reduced accuracy in affective responsiveness. This is the first study to show that mainly emotion recognition is deficient in violent offenders whereas the other components of empathy are rather unaffected. This divergent impact of violent offending on the subcomponents of empathy suggests that all three empathy components can be targeted by therapeutic interventions separately.

Everyday Empathic Accuracy in Younger and Older Couples

On average, older adults are less accurate than younger adults at recognizing emotions from faces or voices. We challenge the view that such differences in emotion-recognition tasks reflect differences in empathic accuracy (the ability to infer other people’s feelings): Empathic accuracy relies not only on sensory cues (e.g., emotional expressions) but also on knowledge about the target person. Using smartphone-based measures, we assessed empathic accuracy in younger and older couples’ daily lives and found that younger adults’ empathic accuracy was higher than older adults’ empathic accuracy when their partners were visibly present. During the partners’ absence, however, when judgments relied exclusively on knowledge of those partners, no age differences emerged, and performance in both age groups was still more accurate than chance. We conclude that across adulthood, sensory information and knowledge differentially support empathic accuracy. Laboratory emotion-recognition tasks may therefore underestimate older adults’ empathic competencies.

Parent satisfaction with a pediatric practice in Germany: A questionnaire-based study

BackgroundParental satisfaction with a pediatric day center is essential for the medical treatment of children, since it is closely related to compliance. In order to ascertain factors which predict parental satisfaction as well as to discover possible weak points, we developed a questionnaire.Methods127 parents visiting the pediatric day center from October to November 2010 were asked to respond to a questionnaire. The survey was given to them directly by the doctor after their visit and it provided the opportunity to determine subjective and soft factors in quality management, which is essential for a pediatric practice. The questionnaire consisted of 27 items divided into three scales. The scales were as follows: satisfaction concerning the infrastructure and organization, satisfaction concerning the communicative and empathic competence of the doctor as well as the other staff, and finally the results and the overall impression. Moreover, the survey asked the respondents for their comments on the pediatric day center and sociodemographic data were queried.ResultsA total of 67 parents (52,7%) responded to the survey. The mean parental satisfaction concerning infrastructure and organization achieved 3,61 (scale 1-very unsatisfied-through 4-very satisfied). The mean satisfaction with the expertise of the doctor and the staff was 3,56 and the overall satisfaction was 3,65. Ninety-one percent of the parents would visit the pediatric practice again and 84,2% would definitely recommend the practice to others.ConclusionSurveys on parental satisfaction are essential for the success of a pediatric day center. Apart from the doctors abilities to interact with the parents, other factors, such as a short waiting period, a friendly and helpful staff, as well as appealing premises are essential for a high overall level of satisfaction.

Assessment of health related issues in individuals’, couples’, and families’ daily life

Abstract. Most research in health psychology is based on retrospective self reports, which are distorted by recall biases and have low ecological validity. To overcome such limitations we developed computer assisted diary approaches to assess health related behaviours in individuals’, couples’ and families’ daily life. The event- and time-sampling-based instruments serve to assess appraisals of the current situation, feelings of physical discomfort, current emotional states, conflict and emotion regulation in daily life. They have proved sufficient reliability and validity in the context of individual, couple and family research with respect to issues like emotion regulation and health. As examples: Regarding symptom reporting curvilinear pattern of frequencies over the day could be identified by parents and adolescents; or psychological well-being is associated with lower variability in basic affect dimensions. In addition, we report on preventive studies to improve parental skills and enhance their empathic competences towards their baby, and towards their partner.

Gender relations and aids: role of attachment styles and empathic competencies in men

Gender relations and aids: role of attachment styles and empathic competencies in men

Anforderungen an Pflegende in Dialyseeinrichtungen aus Sicht von Patientinnen und Patienten – Ergebnisse einer Befragung mittels Critical Incident Technique

Contemporary models of competence in nursing are usually based on the questioning of nursing staff and therefore reflect their professional self-image. Our research focuses on the views of male and female patients on the relevant competencies of professional nursing staff. The "Critical Incident Techniqu" (CIT) (Flanagan, 1954) was applied to reveal relevant demands according to the patients' point of view. This technique has proven to be a suitable method for the reflection of nursing practice in this field of research and has provided realistic descriptions of staff behaviour. Nursing in the field of dialysis was chosen because of the specialized qualifications on staff needed and the high expectations assumed in this care. The CIT-interviews of one female and five male patients were transcribed and the content was analysed. Two main fields of demands were identified: "soft skills" and "hard skills". The patients especially stressed the demands on communicative and empathic competence ("soft skills"). Further research may be useful to validate the results with a larger sample.

Actions of Competence in Occupational Therapy Practice: A phenomenological study of practice in narrative form

This study examined the phenomenon ?what are occupational therapists doing when they feel competent?. Data were provided by eleven occupational therapists who narrated clinical cases in which they had felt themselves to be competent. The empirical phenomenological psychological (EPP) method was used to analyse and interpret the data. The result revealed that on a general level the experience of feeling competent as an occupational therapist derived from achieving results in the rehabilitation project that were satisfying for both participants (the therapist and the client). The strategies for accomplishing this were related to the empathic competence of the therapists. This competence involved interpreting clinical situations as well as understanding the relationship between motive, meaning, decision and time. Further it involved bringing objects, in the form of adaptations, technical aids, structures, simplifications or compensations, into the clinical situation. These abilities together had a great impact on the therapeutic outcome by shaping the clients' lifeworld to make it richer and more active.

Empathy as a hermeneutic practice.

This essay will argue for the centrality of empathy in the doctor-patient relationship-as a core of ethically sound, responsible therapeutics. By "empathy," I intend an explicitly hermeneutic practice, informed by a reflexive understanding of patient and self. After providing an overview of the history of the concept of empathy in clinical medicine, I discuss current definitions and the use of Balint groups in residency training as a way to develop empathic competence in novice physicians.