Articles: empathy.
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Anxiety Stress Coping · May 2010
Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in a national sample of trauma treatment therapists.
For behavioral health professionals working with traumatized clients, continuous and prolonged exposure to the stress of working with the myriad of trauma-related stressors experienced by their clients can lead to various responses including burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction. The present study investigates the impact of using evidence-based practices on compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in a random, national sample of self-identified trauma specialists (N=532). ⋯ The utilization of evidence-based practices predicted statistically significant decreases in compassion fatigue and burnout, and increases in compassion satisfaction. The utility of these findings in understanding the process of trauma transmission between therapist and client as well as directions for future research are discussed.
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Nursing is a stressful occupation. While children's palliative care nurses encounter many of the stressors in common with other nurses, this unique context of care generates specific aspects of stress that warrant further examination. This qualitative study explores the experiences of stress in nurses providing children's palliative care in one region of the UK. ⋯ Four core themes emerged: work demands; relationships, maintaining control, and support and roles. Of particular note were stressors associated with the sub-themes of relationships, emotional demands and ethical conflicts. Conclusions illustrating how individuals and organizations may reduce the impact of stress in nurses contributing to the palliative care of children and their families are made.
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Comparative Study
Reports of the decline of empathy during medical education are greatly exaggerated: a reexamination of the research.
Research is said to show that empathy declines during medical school and residency training. These studies and their results were examined to determine the extent of the decline and the plausibility of any alternative explanations. ⋯ Reexamination revealed that the evidence does not warrant the strong, disturbing conclusion that empathy declines during medical education. Results show a very weak decline in mean ratings, and even the weak decline is questionable because of the low and varying response rates. Moreover, the empathy instruments are self-reports, and it isn't clear what they measure-or whether what they measure is indicative of patients' perceptions and the effectiveness of patient care.
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It has been increasingly recognised that nursing sisters and charge nurses have a crucial role to play in the care of patients. Many of them believe, however, that they are not granted the appropriate authority to fulfil their roles adequately; some of them also claim that they are not paid enough. This article reports on the Nursing Standard Power to Care campaign, which is intended to improve the status of such staff. It also presents a case study of two nominees for last year's Nursing Standard awards in the ward sister and charge nurse role category, and their views on what staff in their position need to succeed in their role.