Elements of psychological support in nursing care

The paper presents the results of a pilot study which involved 50 nurses from several departments of internal medicine of The State Clinical Hospital of the Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The results are based on the Statement Response Questionnaire. They show that the most common responses of the nurses in the face of anxiety expressed by patients are cheering up the patient, collecting information about the symptom, and offering explanation of the symptom. The least common responses included expressing one's own positive emotions and showing empathy towards the patient.     

Meaning and normativity in nurse–patient interaction

Abstract It is a fundamental assumption in nursing theory that it is important for nurses to understand how patients think about themselves and the contexts they are in. According to modern theories of hermeneutics, a nurse and a patient must share the same concepts in order to communicate beliefs with the same content. But nurses and patients seldom understand medical concepts in exactly the same way, so how can this communicative aim be achieved in interaction involving medical concepts? The article uses a theory of concepts from recent cognitive science and philosophy of mind to argue that nurses and patients can share medical concepts despite the diversity of understanding. According to this theory, two persons who understand medical language in different ways will nevertheless possess the same medical concepts if they agree about the normative standards for the applications of the concepts. This entails that nurses and patients normally share medical concepts even though patients’ conceptions of disease and illness are formed in idiosyncratic ways by their social and cultural contexts. Several practical implications of this argument are discussed and linked to case studies. One especially important point is that nurses should seek to make patients feel comfortable with deferring to a medical understanding. In many cases, an adequate understanding of patients presupposes that nurses manage to do this. Another implication is that deference‐willingness to normative meaning is not equivalent to the actual application of concepts. Deference‐willingness should rather be thought of as a pre‐communicative attitude that it is possible for patients who are not fully able to communicate to possess. What is important is that nurses and patients have the intention of conforming to the same meaning.     

Social-Emotional Predictors of Preschoolers'' Responses to Adult Negative Emotion

The study examined predictors of children's prosocial responses to adult negative emotions. An adult displayed anger, sadness and pain during play sessions with 39 preschoolers (mean age = 43 months). Older children responded more prosocially to all three emotions, whereas children with greater emotion knowledge responded more prosocially to the adult's sadness. Children who behaved prosocially in response to peers' negative emotions also were prosocial after the adult's negative emotions, even with effects of age and emotion knowledge held constant. Assertive children responded more prosocially to the adult's anger, even with effects of other variables held constant. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Brief report: empathy and psychological adjustment in siblings of children with cancer

OBJECTIVE: To examine relationships between empathy, illness concepts, sibling relationship variables, and psychological adjustment among siblings of children with cancer. METHODS: Participants were 29 siblings and 14 children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myelocytic leukemia, or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Data included self- and parent-report questionnaires completed during active treatment. RESULTS: Siblings did not exhibit increased rates of behavior problems, but did display more social and academic difficulties. Empathy was a significant predictor of externalizing and total problems. Cancer knowledge was not related to adjustment, but was associated with empathy. Birth order of the child with cancer and closeness within the sibling relationship were associated with less positive adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Empathy may play an important role in sibling adjustment following the diagnosis of cancer. Specific sibling relationship and family variables may be helpful in identifying siblings who are at greater need for psychosocial intervention.     

Radical responsibility beyond empathy: Interreligious resources against liberal distortions of nursing care

In this paper, I bring together Jewish and Buddhist philosophical resources to develop a notion of radical responsibility that can confront a complicity within nursing and health care between empathy and (neo)liberal white supremacist hegemony. My inspiration comes from Angela Davis's call for building coalitions to advance struggles for peace and justice. I proceed as follows. First, I note ways phenomenology clarifies empathy's seeming foundational role in nursing care, and how such a formulation can be complicit with assumptions about private individualism. Second, I turn to the Jewish philosophies of Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas, and their advocacy for a kind of responsibility that precedes the constitution of individuality as this can provide a resource for action and practice circumventing liberal influenced empathy. I note critical reservations about direct and practical application of Levinasian ethics in nursing care, and turn to engaged Buddhist philosophies of interdependence—such as in Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama—as a corrective. Third, I conclude by indicating ways interreligious radical responsibility can reorient us toward housekeeping habits of character and away from exceptional crisis management, noting specific examples and actions in health care, nursing education and nursing scholarship.     

叙事医学在新生儿医学人文教育方面的应用

叙事医学是人文医学发展到一定程度的结果,体现了叙事思想在医学实践中的应用。目前国内外研究已经证实,叙事医学不仅在提高医务人员共情能力、自我反思引发、职业认同感增强等方面有良好的治疗效果,对间接改善患者生理、心理等也有很多益处。新生儿医学在我国起步较晚,目前我国的新生儿重症监护室（NICU）需要隔离监护,几乎不能做到母婴同室,甚至无法探视。新生儿科工作压力大,知识更新快,医学生需要在尽快掌握临床技术的前提下加强人文素养。扎实的临床基础是每一个新生儿科医生必备的,医学的发展也要求新生儿科医生在临床工作中的每个环节融入人文关怀精神。通过叙事医学教育,使新生儿科医生主动养成善于倾听患儿以及其背后家庭的故事,理解和同情患儿及其家属的心情及抉择,形成对患儿的共情能力以及专业的职业精神,促成以患儿为中心的临床思维。叙事医学在新生儿医学人文教育方面的研究还需在今后的临床实践中继续推进、不断应用和总结。     

Neural processing associated with cognitive empathy in pedophilia and child sexual offending

Behavioral studies found evidence for superior cognitive empathy (CE) in pedophilic men without a history of child sexual offending (P − CSO) compared to pedophilic men with a history of child sexual offending (P + CSO). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies also point to differences between P − CSO and P + CSO. Neural processing associated with CE has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the neural correlates of CE in subjects with pedophilia with (P + CSO) and without (P − CSO) child sexual offending. 15 P + CSO, 15 P − CSO and 24 teleiophilic male controls (TC) performed a CE task during fMRI. We observed reduced activation in the left precuneus (Pcu) and increased activation in the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in P − CSO compared to P + CSO. P − CSO also showed stronger connectivity between these regions, which might reflect a top-down modulation of the Pcu by the ACC toward an increased self-focused emotional reaction in social situations. There was also evidence for increased right superior temporal gyrus activation in P − CSO that might constitute a potentially compensatory recruitment due to the dampened Pcu activation. These findings provide first evidence for altered neural processing of CE in P − CSO and underline the importance of addressing CE in pedophilia and CSO in order to uncover processes relevant to effective prevention of child sexual abuse.     

某军医大学学生同理心水平及其影响因素

目的　了解某军医大学学生同理心水平及其影响因素。方法　以自编一般人口学问卷、中文版杰弗逊同理心量表医学生版（JSPE-S）、中文版人际反应指针量表（IRI）和压力知觉量表（CPSS）为调查工具,于2016年6至10月,便利抽取某军医大学在校本科生进行问卷调查。使用SPSS 17.0进行统计分析,不同类别学生数据之间的比较采用t检验、单因素方差分析、卡方检验或Fisher精确检验。结果　发放问卷683份,回收有效问卷594份,有效回收率86.97%。纳入研究学生的医学同理心得分为（104.11±19.66）,总体水平中等偏上。一般同理心得分为（51.63±10.08）分,属中等水平。不同性别、专业、专业满意度、未来从事专业工作意向及有无相关课程学习经历的学生,医学同理心水平差异有统计学意义（P<0.05）;医学同理心水平与压力知觉水平呈中度负相关（r=-0.392,P＝0.00０）,与一般同理心呈中度正相关（r=0.298,P＝0.00０）。结论　军医大学学生的医学同理心水平需加强,应采取有针对性干预措施提高其同理心水平。     

Risk factors for internalizing symptoms: The influence of empathy,theory of mind,and negative thinking processes

Internalizing symptoms such as elevated stress and sustained negative affect can be important warning signs for developing mental disorders. A recent theoretical framework suggests a complex interplay of empathy, theory of mind (ToM), and negative thinking processes as a crucial risk combination for internalizing symptoms. To disentangle these relationships, this study utilizes neural, behavioral, and self-report data to examine how the interplay between empathy, ToM, and negative thinking processes relates to stress and negative affect. We reanalyzed the baseline data of N = 302 healthy participants (57% female, M_age = 40.52, SD_age = 9.30) who participated in a large-scale mental training study, the ReSource project. Empathy and ToM were assessed using a validated fMRI paradigm featuring naturalistic video stimuli and via self-report. Additional self-report scales were employed to measure internalizing symptoms (perceived stress, negative affect) and negative thinking processes (rumination and self-blame). Our results revealed linear associations of self-reported ToM and empathic distress with stress and negative affect. Also, both lower and higher, compared to average, activation in the anterior insula during empathic processing and in the middle temporal gyrus during ToM performance was significantly associated with internalizing symptoms. These associations were dependent on rumination and self-blame. Our findings indicate specific risk constellations for internalizing symptoms. Especially people with lower self-reported ToM and higher empathic distress may be at risk for more internalizing symptoms. Quadratic associations of empathy- and ToM-related brain activation with internalizing symptoms depended on negative thinking processes, suggesting differential effects of cognitive and affective functioning on internalizing symptoms. Using a multi-method approach, these findings advance current research by shedding light on which complex risk combinations of cognitive and affective functioning are relevant for internalizing symptoms.