Empathy plays an important role in comprehensive nursing care. Empathy outcome research shows that exposure to an empathetic person has a palliative and even healing effect on patients. Teaching nurses how to communicate with empathy is crucial to unleash the true potential that empathy has to transform and heal. Four active listening skills and six compassion-based skills are defined. A suggested training rubric appropriate for use in multiple training contexts is provided.

We conducted a retrospective chart review of all ALS patients seen at our institution over four years to determine the incidence of venous thromboembolism and to identify risk factors in this population. Events occurred in 13 of 438 patients (2.97%), yielding an annual incidence rate of 33.1 events per 1,000 patients (95% CI 17.5-55.3). ALS patients have a risk of venous thromboembolism that is higher than the general population but lower than the population of patients with acute stroke or spinal cord injury. Immobility was significantly associated with increased risk of venous thrombosis (RR = 4.96; 95% CI 1.39-17.78).

No abstract