A Concept Analysis of Empathy

¶ … Empathy

Significance of concept to student

The topic of overcoming is relevant to me because it is about getting over barricades. To be a human being and living in a world where it means that there will be obstacles put on me says I will have to overcome them to become successful. At times, they were occasional, for me and at others times they were continuous. The obstacle of overcoming the fear of not becoming successful in life paralyzed me for years. It was important to overcome that fear because it restrained me. It is significant to overcome fear because it destroys your self-worth and caused me to doubt every decision I ever made.

Significance of concept to profession

When it comes to nursing, overcoming is key. One of these obstacles in nursing to overcome has been communication. Nurses execute their own barricades on communication. As a result of the nature of the nursing job. For example, it is simple to turn out to be too attached to a patient at times. It is important to overcome in the nursing profession because healthcare is a place where there is always change taking place. Nurses need to be able to overcome the resistance to change.

Purpose of analysis

The topic of overcoming was chosen for this paper because in my life, I have had many obstacles to overcome. Also, in the nursing field, there are so many different challenges that nurses go through every day dealing with patients. However, at the end of the day, they all must be conquered. Overcoming in the nursing profession is something that nurses have to go through every day that they walk in the front door of the hospital. As a nurse, dealing with other staff and patients can be very challenging. However, without having the right attitude of being an overcomer, it is hard to face these challenges.

II. History section

History of concept in nursing

Overcoming was and is used in nursing practice especially when it comes to change in the workplace. Change is the biggest barrier to overcome. Change is not made without inconvenience and that for years has been a problem for many nurses. Overcoming this matter has not been easy because there is a huge resistance when it comes to change. Changing established behavior of any kind is not easy. It is mainly challenging in healthcare due to the complex relationships among a wide assortment of organizations, specialists, patients and careers. Sometimes change can take a very long time. In many cases, a clinical guideline can take up to 4 years to be completely applied. As nurses, we may even need to look at the scale of change that can be attained credibly; even small changes can have a positive influence, particularly if the change includes an action that is recurring a lot.

Student's belief about the concept

My chosen belief about the topic is that overcoming is something that everyone has to go through at some point and time in their life. Being an over comer especially in the nursing profession is important because we are dealing with patients and they need the proper care. Being an overcomer requires being driven and tenacious. I believe especially in the nursing profession that being an overcomer is something that is needed because it is a profession about changing lives and saving them at the same time. In order to be successful with the challenges that life throws at us, having the mindset that we can overcome anything is without a doubt needed especially as a nurse working in the healthcare profession.

Thoughts about articles author's definitions

One of the main definitions in the article is empathy. The article makes the point that the term has been used in a confusion way. I agree with the articles definition because it states that empathy is showing concern but at the same time, it has been blurred in the nursing profession.

Use of the concept in at least two other disciplines. I thought that the author did a good job giving different versions of the definition. For example, the better one was when he described empathy as the ability to recognize and to some extent share the feelings and states of mind of another and to recognize the meaning and significance of that individual's behavior.

Use of the concept in at least two other disciplines

Psychology and Sociology are both fields that are similar, however they do not have the same definition of overcoming as the nursing field. However, the job of the psychologist is to help those who have psychological problems, overcome their issues.

III. Definitions

State five definitions of the concept

Ability is one definition that is used in the article. The second one is capacity because it involves the amount of overcoming a person can handle. The third word would be emotions because it involves how a person feels about overcoming. The fourth word is feelings. However, the fifth word is sympathy.

Variety of sources for definitions

The author used sources such as Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, Dictionary of Modem Thought, The Longman Dictionary of Psychology and Psychiatry, Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Applied Health Comparison of definitions. All of these resources were used in showing how empathy can be used.

Comparison of definitions

The author does compare the words of empathy with sympathy. Both of these do address the concept of overcoming because empathy shows how a person can feels towards another person and also how sympathy is feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. Other comparisons would involve that sympathy has something to do with 'feeling sorry' for the other individual or picturing how we would feel if we were feeling what is taking place to them Empathy varies in the event that we try to envision what it is like being that individual and going through the things as they do, not as we would go through them. However, the author did not compare the other definitions.

Ability, and capacity are two words that are synonyms in a lot of their uses when it comes to empathy. Both of these words are often utilized in order to denote to one's power to achieve an action. For instance, a nurse could have the ability, or capacity to be able to read several patients charts in one week. But then capacity -- which is stretched metaphorically in the minds it shares with the other verbs -- does have certain special uses that it does not share with the other meanings. It tends to associate to quantities and volumes; for instance, in the sentence, "The nurse chart capacity is 100 a week," capacity here refers to the amount of the car's aptitude to hold and is not substitutable with the other two other verbs.

Comparing cognition with empathy is different. Cognition is psychological activities involved in obtaining and processing data for better accepting, whereas emotion is the sharing of the affect which is displayed in subjectively experienced emotional state. Empathy can be labeled as a cognitive or an emotional quality or a mixture of both. Recent studies described empathy as the neural matching mechanism established of a mirror neuron system in the brain, which allows to put oneself in the "mental place" of others (T, 2006). Furthermore, empathy in humans is aided by other mental and domain-general high-level cognitive aptitudes for example executive functions and language, in addition to the skill to distinguish another's psychological conditions from one's own, which enlarge the range of behaviors that can be driven by empathy.

IV. Antecedents

Are there antecedents

An antecedent is considered to be the word that a pronoun substitutes or refers to. Whenever there is a pronoun, there will also be an antecedent, even if it is not even in the very same sentence. However, this does make some sense; if there was not any kind of antecedent for every pronoun, there would be left with a great deal of confusion. Antecedents are events leading to the concept. For instance, the antecedents of pregnancy are ovulation and sexual intercourse (McCabe, 2007). Antecedents recognized by FinfgeldConnett (2006) consist of the idea of professional maturity that includes competence and knowledge in addition to emotional maturity which stops them from turn out to be over 48 emotional (Euswas, 1993) or damaging, controlling or selfish procedures of helping (McCabe, 2007)

Results follow the concept. For instance, the consequence of pregnancy is either birth or miscarriage. In the case of the article, the concept is empathy. With that said, the antecedent that are listed in the article are the other antecedents to empathy which involve moral foundations which comprise a commitment to act kindly to allow caring to be endorsed in a thorough and responsible manner.

List and discuss antecedents

Remarkably, patient/client openness to caring is acknowledged as an antecedent and this stresses that nurses must have the judgement in order to recognize when a patient's anger may hinder his or her capacity to benefit from the kind of relational care talked about in the literature. In general, the literature proposes that something of the nurse must be able to recognize and value the human kind of all with whom he/she comes into interaction as a pre-essential for empathy. However, the antecedents of empathy are not all internal nursing qualities. I think the antecedent is relevant because in the nursing contest this seems furthermore important for the reason that interactions with patients play an important role in the emotional assignment.

V. Defining Characteristics

List characteristics

understanding

Non-judgmental

Communicate and understanding

See the world as others see it

Discussion about characteristics

Being understanding is a necessary attribute. This part of the charactenstic was rejected because if an individual is relating an instance in regards to how they were feeling in the past, however the article makes the point that it is still possible to be empathic and to be able to acknowledge the feelings of the patient. A non-judgmental nurse is key in the industry. Even though it could be argued that, if the other attributes were present (that is to say, observing the world as others are looking at it and accepting the feelings of others), this would routinely be present likewise. The author referred numerous colleagues as to this attribute for the reason that some contended that one could comprehend but still be judgmental

Communication of understanding seems very important, especially if empathy is to be felt. Even though early works do not consist of this, it does seem implied. Every one of the tools for measuring empathy consist of communication of understanding, so this was considered to be as an attribute. See the world as others see it is important another important characteristic. According to the article, every one of 53 references without exclusion incorporated this as a characteristic of empathy. Two of the dictionary definitions made the point that 'others' could indicate an object instead of a person. This was acknowledged as a defining attribute, if this was not present, then empathy could not take place.

VI. Consequences

List consequences

Understood

satisfied

Discuss consequences

The consequences of an empathic interaction is that those that are 'empathies' have a basic requirement to want be understood and satisfied. These people feel that they should be valued and more prepared to appreciate themselves and change. The person that is being empathic feels satisfied for the reason that they sense that they have been of help and fulfilled the need to be useful to others. When it comes to these consequences, the article makes the point that the last stage of the model is to recognize what phenomena demonstrate the incidence of the concept. The empirical referents are what define when the concept has happened, so can be used as a certain kind of measure with consequences. They could possibly be similar or identical to the defining attributes.