EXPLORING EMPATHY AS A VARIABLE IN THE EVALUATION OF PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS FOR PALLIATIVE CARE NURSES

Research indicates that empathy, a quality regarded as fundamentally i mportant to nursing practice, is a teachable skill. Because empathic n urse-patient relationships are particularly important in the care of t he terminally ill, this has direct relevance to the professional devel opment of palliative care nurses. This article discusses the place of empathy as a criterion variable in the evaluation of a professional de velopment program for palliative care nurses introduced at the Centre for Mental Health Nursing Research at Queensland University of Technol ogy, Brisbane, Australia. A modified version of the Staff-Patient Inte raction Response Scale (SPIRS) was used as a pre- and postintervention measure to assess the expressed empathy of the participating nurses. The modifications to SPIR and its coding system to make it suitable fo r palliative care nursing, and the mechanisms for improving and evalua ting the reliability of this instrument will be discussed. The full de scription of this particular modification of SPIRS for palliative care research is provided as an example of how this instrument could be we d in projects for which nurses undertake the difficult task of providi ng compassionate care to the terminally ill.