Marta Villacieros

The Empathic Process and Misconceptions that Lead to Burnout in Healthcare Professionals

Empathy has been identified as a relevant variable in order to predict burnout in healthcare professionals. In addition, assertiveness and self-esteem have been considered relevant variables to develop empathic capacity. In the other hand, misconceptions surrounding empathy constitute a risk factor for burnout. Two adult samples (N = 252 and N = 275) were used to explore and confirm the underlying structure of two questionnaires. The Exercise of Process of Empathy (EPE) scale (18 items) confirmatory factor analysis including 5 dimensions (cognitive and emotional comprehension, attention, clarity and assertiveness), showed reasonable goodness- of-fit indices χ2(130) = 269.63, p < .001; RMSEA = .069 90% CI [0.058 - 0.079]; CFI = .965; TLI = .959. Alpha coefficient resulted .848. Common Misconceptions (EH) of empathy scale (16 items) confirmatory factor analysis, including 3 dimensions (feeling, confluence and character misconceptions) also obtained reasonable goodness-of-fit indices χ 2 (101) = 250.59, p < .001; RMSEA = .075 90% CI [0.063 - 0.087]; CFI = .952; TLI = .943. Alpha coefficient for Character resulted .727 (5 items), for Confluence .764 (5 items) and for Feeling .822 (6 items). The SEM models R 2 resulted .303, being EH (misconceptions) a risk factor (b* = .171), EPE (empathy process) a protection factor (b* = -.183). The model partially explains how misconceptions empathy process and self-esteem (b* = -.334) relate to burnout syndrome in healthcare professionals; what is more, it heralds a potential means to prevent it.

Escala de mitos en duelo. Relación con el estilo de afrontamiento evitativo y validación psicométrica

espanolEn la elaboracion del duelo, tanto las estrategias particulares de afrontamiento como el concepto que maneja el doliente sobre la muerte son fundamentales. El proposito de esta investigacion es analizar la relacion entre el estilo de afrontamiento evitativo y los mitos o creencias erroneas sobre el duelo ademas de establecer la dimensionalidad de la Escala de Mitos en Duelo (EMD; Amurrio y Limonero, 2007). Dicha escala se paso a una muestra de 265 personas (81 % mujeres y 19 % hombres). Los indicadores revelaron buen ajuste a los datos, estableciendose dos dimensiones: el primer factor recoge la creencia de que es mejor no recordar lo sucedido y el segundo que es mejor no expresarlo. Los resultados senalaron que el uso de estrategias de afrontamiento evitativo, ser hombre, la ausencia de formacion universitaria y el haber perdido a un familiar de segundo grado, predicen un mayor nivel de mitos en duelo. EnglishIn the elaboration of the duel both individual coping strategies as the concept that manages the grieving over death are fundamental. The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the avoidant coping style and myths or misconceptions about the duel, apart from establishing the dimensionality of the Scale of Myths in Duel (SMD) (Amurrio and Limonero, 2007). The scale was passed to a sample of 265 people (81 % of women and 19 % men). Indicators revealed good fit to the data settling two dimensions: the first factor reflects the belief that it is better not to remember what happened and the second that it is better not to express it. Findings pointed that the use of avoidant coping strategies, being a man, the absence of university training and having lost a second-degree level of closeness familiar, predict a higher level of myths in duel.