Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality

Poulin, Michael J.; Brown, Stephanie L.; Dillard, Amanda J.; Smith, Dylan M.

doi:10.2105/ajph.2012.300876

Cited by 135 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Compassion appears to buffer the effects of stress on wellbeing (Poulin, Brown, Dillard, & Smith, 2013). Also, the other-oriented focus of the compassionate response may allow the observer to empathize with the other's suffering but without identifying with it, providing a self-other distinction which is essential to regulate personal distress feelings and to provide adequate care to the sufferer (Klimecki and Singer, 2012).…”

Section: Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between nurses’ empathy, self-compassion and dimensions of professional quality of life: A cross-sectional study

Duarte

Pinto‐Gouveia

Cruz

2016

International Journal of Nursing Studies

273

197

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Background: Job stress and burnout are common among healthcare professionals, and nurses in particular. In addition to the heavy workload and lack of recourses, nurses are also confronted with emotionally intense situations associated with illness and suffering, which require empathic abilities. Although empathy is one of the core values in nursing, if not properly balanced it can also have detrimental consequences, such as compassion fatigue. Self-compassion, on the other hand, has been shown to be a protective factor for a wide range of well-being indicators and has been associated with compassion for others.Objectives: The main goal of this study was to explore how empathy and selfcompassion related to professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout). In addition, we wanted to test whether self-compassion may be a protective factor for the impact of empathy on compassion fatigue.Methods and Participants: Using a cross-sectional design, 280 registered nurses from public hospitals in Portugal's north and center region were surveyed. Professional quality of life (Professional Quality Of Life), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and self-compassion (Self-compassion Scale) were measured using validated self-report measures.Results: Correlations and regression analyses showed that empathy and self-compassion predicted the three aspects of professional quality of life. Empathic concern was positively associated with compassion satisfaction as well as with compassion fatigue.Mediation models suggested that the negative components of self-compassion explain some of these effects, and self-kindness and common humanity were significant moderators. The same results were found for the association between personal distress and compassion fatigue. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 3 Conclusions: High levels of affective empathy may be a risk factor for compassion fatigue, whereas self-compassion might be protective. Teaching self-compassion and self-care skills may be an important feature in interventions that aim to reduce burnout and compassion fatigue.Keywords: empathy; compassion fatigue; nurses; professional quality of life; selfcompassion . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 4 Introduction Empathy is a central aspect of healthcare, and has been associated with positive outcomes not only for the patient (e.g., Rakel et al., 2011;Hojat, Louis, & Markham, 2011;Blatt, LeLacheur, Galinsky, Simmens, & Greenberg, 2010) but also for the healthcare professional (Thomas et al., 2007; Shanafel et al., 2005).However, given the constant exposure to highly d...

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Section: Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between nurses’ empathy, self-compassion and dimensions of professional quality of life: A cross-sectional study

Duarte

Pinto‐Gouveia

Cruz

2016

International Journal of Nursing Studies

273

197

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“…Perhaps most importantly, compassion appears to buffer the effects of stress on well-being. A study conducted on over 800 people found that while stress generally predicted greater mortality, this link was absent in those who were engaged in compassionate activities [32], perhaps because it improves resilience and increases adaptive profiles of stress reactivity [33]. As a consequence, individuals who engage in compassionate actions show improved health and longer lifespans [34,35].…”

Section: The Benefits Of Compassion For Patients and Providersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the extent of burnout and stress in the medical field [11,59], the desire on the part of providers, medical staff, and patients for more compassionate interactions [20,24,29] and the stress-buffering and health-promoting impact of compassion [32,35], it is imperative that healthcare providers avail themselves of tools to help decrease burnout and increase compassion. While efforts are being made to reduce stress in medical schools [60], the millions of providers already in practice are in need of tools that are beneficial and time-effective.…”

Section: Implications For Decreasing Burnoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care

Seppälä

Hutcherson

Nguyen

et al. 2014

J of Compassionate Health Care

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Background: Stress is a critical problem facing many healthcare institutions. The consequences of stress include increased provider burnout and decreased quality of care for patients. Ironically, a key factor that may help buffer the impact of stress on provider well-being and patient health outcomes-compassion-is low in healthcare settings and declines under stress. This gives rise to an urgent question: what practical steps can be taken to increase compassion, thereby benefitting both provider well-being and patient care? Methods: We investigated the relative effectiveness of a short, 10-minute session of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) to increase compassion and positive affect. We compared LKM to a non-compassion positive affect induction (PAI) and a neutral visualization (NEU) condition. Self-and other-focused affect, self-reported measures of social connection, and semi-implicit measures of self-focus were measured pre-and post-meditation using repeated measures ANOVAs and via paired sample t-tests for follow-up comparisons. Results: Findings show that LKM improves well-being and feelings of connection over and above other positive-affect inductions, at both explicit and implicit levels, while decreasing self-focus in under 10 minutes and in novice meditators. Conclusions: These findings suggest that LKM may be a viable, practical, and time-effective solution for preventing burnout and promoting resilience in healthcare providers and for improving quality of care in patients.

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“…Providing indirect support for this hypothesis, correlational and longitudinal research suggests that individuals who provide help to others exhibit a reduced risk of mortality and better overall health (e.g., Brown, Consedine & Magai, 2005;Brown et al, 2009;Piliavin & Siegl, 2007;Poulin, Brown, Dillard & Smith, 2013; see Konrath & Brown, 2013 for a recent review).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Is spending money on others good for your heart?

et al. 2016

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Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality

Abstract: Helping others predicted reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality.

Cited by 135 publications

References 43 publications

Relationships between nurses’ empathy, self-compassion and dimensions of professional quality of life: A cross-sectional study

Relationships between nurses’ empathy, self-compassion and dimensions of professional quality of life: A cross-sectional study

Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care

Is spending money on others good for your heart?

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