Empathy, personality traits, and emotional management in 2nd and 4th-year dentistry students: a single-center study

Background Patients fearing dental interventions are at risk of delaying or skipping much-needed treatments. Empathic communication could lead to a higher rate of compliance from patients within this group. Empathy, the big five personality traits, and emotion management abilities are all known to influence the quality of communication between dentists and patients. This study was conducted to analyze whether there is a correlation between these factors in dentistry students. Methods Dentistry students in their 2nd and 4th year of study were asked to complete questionnaires assessing empathy, emotion management, and personality traits. Out of a total of 148 eligible participants, 53 students (34%) volunteered to participate. For empathy, the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (students’ version; JSPE-S) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) were used. Personality traits were assessed using the Short Big Five Inventory (BFI-s), and the Situational Test of Emotional Management (STEM) to measure emotional management ability. Results Higher scores for emotion management were significantly correlated with the female gender (p ≤ 0.005) and with higher scores in openness (p ≤ 0.05). Students with higher scores in openness also achieved higher scores on the IRI subscales: Perspective taking (p ≤ 0.05), Fantasy (p ≤ 0.01), Empathic concern (p ≤ 0.05), and Personal distress (p ≤ 0.05). For JSPE-S, no correlation with emotion management and personality traits was found. Conclusion Empathy and emotion management might not be significantly related in dentistry students. Regarding personality traits, students who scored higher on openness also indicated higher abilities in emotion management. These findings should be taken into consideration when planning communication courses for dentistry students, as it might be possible to independently train empathy and emotion management as part of emotional intelligence.

MasterchEF

During the 2019/2020 academic year, a learning experience built based on the famous cooking show Master Chef was implemented. This was executed in the specialization in Physical Education of the teaching Master's degree. During this experience, candidates (the student body) had to face different weekly challenges (individual, in groups, and eliminatory) based on the ingredients (course contents) that were presented weekly by the chef (the professor). This proposal was built using active methodologies as a reference, turning the student body into the protagonists of their learning process and encouraging those competencies that a good teacher needs in their day-to-day life. The authors ensured that the essence of the original program, characterized by requiring good time-managing skills, continuous decision making, or necessary emotional management, was maintained. At the same time, they took special care of details such as aesthetics or the language employed in Master Chef. Results show the viability and potential of this type of approach in the formative process of future teaching staff.

Korean Clinical Nurses’ Emotional Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the emotions experienced by Korean clinical nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to understand their essential meaning in depth.Methods: A qualitative study was performed using individual in-depth interviews and data were collected from 12 nurses in clinical practice from June 2020 to December 2020. Data were analyzed using the Colaizzi’s phenomenological method.Results: The following three categories were derived: ‘shock of the unprecedented new infectious disease’, ‘hardships caused by the never-ending struggle’, and ‘hope in the midst of hardship’.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it was confirmed that there is a need to prepare an appropriate compensation system and emotional support strategies for nurses in the traumatic event of a pandemic. In addition, it is necessary to develop a recovery from trauma and emotional management program to reduce the negative emotional experiences and strengthen the positive emotional experiences.

Emotional Management in the Workplace of the Spanish Population. Quantitative Analysis through the Construction of an Emotional Quality Index at Work and its Link to Social Structure

The organisation of work, located in the post-Fordist paradigm, stresses the emotional aspects of employee-client interaction processes. This emphasis arises from the shift in the productive structure towards growth in service activities in which interpersonal relationships are key factors. In this "new culture", the organisation is conceived as a ‘sentient’ environment and emotional workcaptures the interest of researchers and social scientists who analyse the role played by emotionsin occupations and organisational culture (Zapf, 2002, Grandey 2000, 2015, Seymour and Sandiford2005, Bolton 2000, Wharton, 2009, Totterdell, and Holman, 2003). Most related research has focused on qualitative case studies of workers in the service sector (Steinberg and Figart, 1999) — an approach that limits the inferences one can make and hinders one in linking findings to the socialstructure. The aim of our research is to expand this field of analysis and explore the link between emotional management and social structure. That is why we used a quantitative methodology, for which purpose we built an Emotional Quality Index in the Workplace (EQIW), allowing us to measure the emotional quality of workers in Spain and analyse their relationship with the threekey structural variables: social class; occupation; gender. Here, we used data from the European Working Conditions Survey (2015). The results show that there are significant differences in the emotional management of work by occupation, social class and gender, verifying that there isindeed a link between the EQIW and the social structure.

Analysis of Affective Discourse in the Change Process of the Employment Relationship Model: Environment Management through Collective Bargaining

This paper covers research whose goal was to analyse affective changes in the process of change in the labour relations model that was consolidated throughout the 1990s. Based on a case study, the focus was on the emotional content expressed by the protagonists inrelation to this collective bargaining framework. In conducting the analysis, we used the wide range of procedures provided by Discourse Analysis (DA). Part of this analysis focused on the protagonists’ emotional management of the early stages of the negotiation. The results let us delve deeper into the affective nature of this process, thereby expanding the light shed by other theoretical and methodological perspectives on this change in the labour relations model.

An Investigation on Well-being and Emotional Intelligence among Young Adults

Subjective well-being is a psychological aspect of life satisfaction. An individual’s psychological well-being affects how a person thinks and feels. There are numerous factors which can influence the subjective well-being of an individual. One of the most important factors is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has been preoccupying a significant place in well-being literature. Goleman (1998) defines it as “emotional awareness and emotional management abilities give the ability to balance emotion and reason in order to maximise long-term enjoyment". It entails recognising one's own and others feelings, managing one's own emotions, and adapting to others emotions. The objective of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological well-being among young adults who are following bachelor degrees from recognized national universities. The sample consists of 200 participants both male and female of age range 19 to 23 years mean age is 21, included in this study. Well-being Inventory and Multidimensional Measures of Emotional Intelligence were administered to measure the subjective well-being and emotional intelligence. Results showed that selfawareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, handling relations dimension of emotional intelligence evidenced strong positive associations with well-being positive affect, well-being negative affect and well-being total dimensions of well-being. Stepwise regression analysis disclosed two predictors of well-being i.e. managing emotions and motivating oneself. These results have important implications with regard to our current understanding of the relationships between well-being and emotional intelligence.

Caregiver Task Difficulties at the End of Life: A Latent Cluster Analysis

Caregivers engage in myriad tasks from household help to complex medical care. However, little information is available on how caregivers experience individual tasks – particularly key end-of-life tasks such as managing breathing problems or patients' sadness and anxiety. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess task difficulty. Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Survey and the National Survey on Caregivers (2015-2017), we assessed eleven caregiving tasks in 241 primary caregivers of care recipients in their last month of life. A latent cluster analysis revealed three key clusters: 1) pervasive difficulties, in which caregivers reported difficulty across most or all of the tasks; 2) minimal difficulties; and 3) emotional management difficulties, in which caregivers reported difficulty with managing sadness and anxiety and lower levels of difficulty on the other tasks. Weighted frequency analyses revealed that caregivers in the pervasive difficulties cluster were most likely to be filial caregivers (85% versus 63% of the full sample, p<0.05) or co-residing with the care recipient (49% versus 37% of the full sample, p<0.05). Caregivers identified as having pervasive difficulties were also more likely to report providing intensive care, more than 100 hours per week (54% versus 36% of the full sample, p<0.05). Care recipient condition was not associated with cluster membership. The findings highlight the need to consider caregiver coping at the task-level and have implications for understanding unmet needs. Future research will assess predictors of cluster membership and how task difficulties are associated with symptoms and well-being outcomes.

Self-management perspectives of elderly patients with multimorbidity and practitioners - status, challenges and further support needed?

Background Patients with multimorbidity (here defined as three or more chronic conditions) require constant treatment and care. Furthermore, they have to manage their health and diseases in daily life. Offering support to patients’ medical self-management is an important task of primary care. The aim of this study was to explore, what further support is needed from the perspective of patients’ and primary care practitioners. Methods A qualitative study using individual semi-structed interviews with 17 patients with multimorbidity and 7 practitioners (4 primary care physicians and 3 practice assistants) was conducted in Germany. Data were audio-recorded, pseudonymised and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was performed using qualitative content analysis to structure data into themes and subthemes. All data were managed and organised in MAXQDA. Results The three broad themes: current status, challenges and further support emerged. Patients reported on unfulfilled needs regarding role or emotional management, like coping with loneliness, loss of independence and, changing habits. The importance of social contact was highlighted by patients and practitioners. Patients articulated further support from their primary care practitioners on coping with the disease. Practitioners’ wished for further support in aspects of social participation, public transport, and community resources. Conclusion Challenges regarding self-management of elderly patients with multimorbidity may be addressed by harnessing social support and community initiatives.