Telephone nurses' perceived stress, self-efficacy and empathy in their work with frequent callers.

AIM: To examine telephone nurses' perceived stress, self-efficacy and empathy in their work with answering calls from frequent callers. DESIGN: The study is a quantitative questionnaire survey study with a comparative design. METHODS: Telephone nurses (N = 199) answered a survey containing three instruments: Perceived Stress Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Jefferson's Scale of Empathy. Correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance were performed to test the research questions. RESULTS: Significant negative correlations were found between stress involving calls from FCs and self-efficacy (r = -.238), and significant negative correlations between stress involving calls from frequent callers and empathy (r = -.185). It was further revealed that telephone nurses who had worked less than 30 years scored higher on Jefferson's Scale of empathy than those who had worked more than 30 years, F(1, 183) = 4.98, η2  = 0.027

Empathy levels among nursing students : A comparative cross-sectional study

Aim: Empathy is a crucial component of the nurse-patient relationship, but knowledge is lacking as to when empathy develops during nursing education. The aim of the present study was to compare empathy levels at different stages of undergraduate nursing education and different master's nursing programmes. Design: The design was a comparative cross-sectional study. Methods: A total of 329 participants in Sweden, comprised of nursing students in their second and sixth semesters in an undergraduate nursing programme as well as master's nursing students, rated their own empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Results: Students in their sixth semester in an undergraduate nursing programme expressed more empathy than did students in their second semester and master's nursing students. Among the five master's programmes, public-health nursing students expressed the most empathy and intensive-care nursing students the least

Exploring patient-centered aspects of home care communication : a cross-sectional study

Background: Communication is a cornerstone in nursing and aims at both information exchange and relationship building. To date, little is known about the naturally occurring communication between older persons and nurses in home care. Communication might heal through different pathways and a patient- or person-centered communication could be important for health and well-being of older persons. However, the delivery of individualized home care is challenged by routines and organizational demands such as time constraints. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the patient-centered aspects of home care communication between older persons and registered nurses. Methods: In total 37 older persons (aged 65 years or older) and eleven RNs participated in 50 audio-recorded home care visits. Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) was used to code verbal communication. A ratio from these codes, establishing the degree of patient-centeredness, was analyzed using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model. Results: The present home care communication contained more socio-emotional than task-oriented communication and the emotional tone was largely positive. The global affect ratings reflected an overall positive tone (m = 39.88,sd = 7.65), with higher ratings on dimensions of, for example, responsiveness/engagement and interactivity or interest were more frequent than those that may be considered as less-positive emotions (m = 15.56,sd = 3.91), e.g. hurried, dominance or anger. The ratio of the degree of patient-centered communication in the home care visits was an average of 1.53, revealing that the communication could be considered as patient-centered. The length of the visits was the only characteristic significantly associated with the degree of patient-centeredness in the communication, with a peak in patient-centeredness in visits 8-9 min long. Sex, age or procedural focus showed no significant effects on the degree of patient-centeredness. Conclusion: Overall, the degree of patient-centeredness and a positive emotional tone, which might have a positive outcome on older persons' health, was high. Longer visits provided a higher degree of patient-centeredness, but no linear increase in patient-centeredness due to length of visit could be observed. The findings can be used for education and training of nurses, and for providing individualized care, e.g. patient- or person-centered care

Emotional communication in home care: A comparison between Norway and Sweden

Objective: Given the free movement of workers across countries, knowledge regarding communication differences between countries is imperative. In this study, we explored and compared the supportive responses of nursing staff to older persons’ emotions in home care in Norway and Sweden. Methods: The study had an observational, cross-sectional, comparative design, which included 383 audio-recorded home-care visits. Communication was coded using Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences. Worries and responses were categorised with regard to reference, communicative function and level of person-centredness. Standard statistical tests were used to analyse the data. Results: The Swedish nursing staff provided space for further disclosure of worry more frequently than the Norwegian nursing staff (75.0 % versus 60.2 %, χ2 = 20.758, p < 0.01). In all, 65 % of the responses were supportive. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that highly person-centred responses were independently associated with worries phrasing an emotion, OR (95 % CI) 3.282 (1.524–7.067). Conclusion: The level of person-centredness was associated with the way in which older persons expressed their distress. The Swedish nursing staff provided opportunities for further disclosure of worries more frequently than the Norwegian nursing staff. Practice implications: Findings of intercultural differences should be incorporated into the training of nursing staff