EMPATHIC NURSE'S NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 102
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Nursing literature suggests that nurses should be empathic with their patients and questions whether, in fact, they are. The nursing literature also contends that nonverbal communication behaviors carry powerful interpersonal messages, and empathy is communicated by more than words alone. Therefore, this research examined how nurses nonverbally communicated empathy to patients.

Thirty nurses and an equal number of patients from two hospitals participated in the study. Nurse-patient interactions were videotaped in a simulated, patient unit laboratory setting. Nurses' empathy was measured by 3 empathy scales and 6 nonverbal communication behaviors measured by video-recordings and frequency and time duration counts. Demographic data were obtained to determine if there was a relationship between them and nurses' empathy. Also patients were asked to identify what behaviors nurses used that communicated empathy.

The instruments did not agree on the empathy level of the nurse. Analysis showed that the lack of agreement was perhaps due to each of the 3 empathy instruments measuring different constructs of empathy. The nonverbal communication behaviors that related best to the empathy scores were the infrequency of the nurse speaking with CES scores (r = .34 p = .06), the closeness of the nurse to the patient with BLRI scores (r = .33 p = .07), and head nods with NES scores (r = .39 p = .03). Nurses' age and years experience were positively related to empathy scores. Patients identified concern, understanding, listening, and mutualness as important characteristics of empathic nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, Section: B, page: 1732.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1984.

School code: 0806.