title: Examining nurse empathy for infant procedural pain: Testing a new video measure.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research reporting effective pain care strategies exists, yet it is not translated to care. Little is known about how repeated pain exposure has affected nurses' ability to be empathetic and use their knowledge to provide evidence-based care. Concerns have been raised regarding the validity of self-report empathy instruments; therefore, a novel video program was developed for testing. It was hypothesized that those who viewed infants in painful and nonpainful states would have a measureable empathy (pain rating) response correlating to the level of pain expressed by the infants.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To validate the newly developed Empathy for Infant Pain video program (EIPvp) by determining whether nurse and non-nurse control groups' pain scores of 24 video clips showing infants undergoing real medical procedures were equal.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive cross-sectional video judgement study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty female participants (25 nurses and 25 allied health controls) were asked to score the infant procedural pain level displayed in the EIPvp using a visual analogue scale and a composite score of known infant pain cues. Participants also scored their own sensitivity to painful events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants rated the videos contained in the EIPvp similarly in three categories (no, low or high pain); however, there were consistent differences between groups within the categories. Nurses scored facial cues for all categories higher than the control group. Nurses scored their own pain in hypothetical situations and that of the infants consistently higher than the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The EIPvp yielded predictable responses from both the nurse and non-nurse control groups when scoring the pain expressed in the video clips. Nurses' detection of pain more often than controls may have been an indication that they have greater knowledge of pain cues, or their empathy levels may have been different as a result of their exposure to, or their perceived relationship with, patients. The EIPvp was validated and has promising potential for training and research purposes.
authors: School of Nursing, Dalhousie University, Centre for Pediatric Pain Research, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia. margot.latimer@iwk.nshealth.ca
authors: Margot
authors: M
authors: Latimer
authors: Philip
authors: P
authors: Jackson
authors: Celeste
authors: C
authors: Johnston
authors: Jocelyn
authors: J
authors: Vine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult