Articles: empathy.
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Comparative Study
Compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses compared with nurses in other selected inpatient specialties.
Today the proportion of acute patients entering the health care system through emergency departments continues to grow, the number of uninsured patients relying primarily on treatment in the emergency department is increasing, and patients' average acuities are rising. At the same time, support resources are constrained, while reimbursement and reputation depends increasingly on publicly available measures of patient satisfaction. It is important to understand the potential effect of these pressures on direct care staff. This study explores the prevalence of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses and nurses in other selected inpatient specialties. ⋯ ED nurse managers, along with other nurse leaders, are faced with the competing demands of managing the satisfaction of patients, recruitment and retention of experienced nurses, and provision of quality and safe care customized to patients' needs and preferences. Understanding the concepts of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue, recognizing the signs and symptoms, and identifying best practice interventions, will help nurses maintain caring attitudes with patients and contribute to patient satisfaction.
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Schizophrenia research · Sep 2010
Social cognition, empathy and functional outcome in schizophrenia.
Social and occupational functioning difficulties are a characteristic feature of schizophrenia, and a growing body of evidence suggests that deficits in social cognition contribute significantly to these functional impairments. The present study sought to investigate whether the association between social cognition and social functioning in schizophrenia would be mediated by self-reported levels of empathy. Thirty outpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and twenty-five healthy controls completed a well-validated facial affect processing task (Ekman 60-faces facial task from the Facial Expressions of Emotion - Stimuli and Tests; FEEST), The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT; to assess emotion perception and complex social cognitive skills such as the detection of sarcasm and deceit, from realistic social exchanges), and measures of self-reported empathy and social functioning. ⋯ Impairment in the identification of the emotions of others was found to be associated with lower satisfaction and lower empathic fantasy. However, empathy could not be explored as a mediator of associations between social cognition and functional outcome, due to lack of common associations with functional outcome measures. These findings have implications for the remediation of specific social cognitive deficits with respect to improving functional outcomes in schizophrenia.
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Families and their dying members have notably unmet needs. This is in large part due to health professionals being unprepared to be authentic (emotionally appropriate, purposive, and responsible) in end-of-life encounters. ⋯ Patterns emerged in a presence of authentic being-with dying, which assisted persons in their transitions toward a peaceful death. Patterns are explicated in a 5-point framework, which paralleled Heidegger's structures of authentic being-toward-death.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2010
Personality characteristics of hospice palliative care volunteers: the ''big five'' and empathy.
The goal of this study was to examine the personality characteristics of hospice palliative care volunteers by measuring the so-called big five personality traits and 4 separate aspects of empathy. A total of 99 hospice palliative care volunteers completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) of Costa Jr and McCrae and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) of Davis. ⋯ On the empathy measure, female hospice palliative care volunteers scored significantly higher on the empathic concern and perspective taking subscales compared to the female norms, and significantly lower on the personal distress and fantasy subscales. The results of this study may have implications for the recruitment and retention of hospice palliative care volunteers.
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There is a limited amount of compassion each provider has to offer patients. A key to healing is to recognize that the problem exists. Providers with CF may cease providing prompt care, or eliminate key process steps.