SELECTED FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NURSING HOME RESIDENT DIFFICULTY IN SELF DISCLOSURE OF HEALTH RELATED INFORMATION.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Using Jourard's theory of self disclosure and Travelbee's theory of therapeutic use of self in the nurse-patient relationship as the framework for the study, stepwise multiple regression analysis identified relationships among nursing home staff perspective-taking and emotional components of empathy, nursing home resident perceptions of staff perspective-taking and emotional empathy, and nursing home resident difficulty in self disclosure of health related information.

Thirty-nine pairs of nursing home staff and nursing home residents, purposively selected, composed the sample. Staff were predominately female, 56% licensed practical nurses (LPN), 44% registered nurses (RN), with a median age of 38. Residents were predominately black females, cognitively intact, with a median age of 79. Data were collected using demographic data forms, The Hogan Empathy Scale and Empathic Tendency Scale for staff; and demographic data forms, The Patient Self Disclosure Instrument and Visual Analogues for residents. Significant relationships, at $p < .05$, were identified using descriptive statistics, frequencies, Pearson product-moment correlations, paired t-tests, z-tests, and stepwise multiple regression analysis.

Significant findings identified resident perception of staff perspective-taking and emotional empathy inversely related to resident difficulty in self disclosure of health related information. Only resident perception of staff perspective-taking contributed to the multiple regression after controlling nurse age and education.

Related findings showed a positive correlation between resident perception of staff perspective-taking and emotional empathy. Nursing home staff scored significantly lower in perspective-taking and emotional components of empathy than their respective population means for females. As resident age increased, difficulty in self disclosure of health related information decreased. The older residents were female. RNs in this sample were older than the LPNs. Older staff were employed in nursing homes longer than younger staff.

Major findings support the conclusion that nursing home resident perceptions of nursing home staff perspective-taking and nursing home staff emotional empathy are significant predictors of nursing home resident difficulty of self disclosure of health related information.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-02, Section: B, page: 0494.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1988.

School code: 0043.