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Empathy in paediatric intensive care nurses part 2: Neural correlates
Philip L Jackson1,2,3, Margot Latimer4,5, Fanny Eugène1,2
1Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et intégration sociale, Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|May 12, 2017
Summary
Paediatric nurses show different brain activity than allied health professionals when viewing infant pain. Professional experience may influence these neural differences in vicarious pain perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Medical Imaging
- Healthcare Professionals
Background:
- Healthcare professionals may underestimate patient pain due to altered neural responses.
- Paediatric nurses might exhibit distinct neural responses to infant pain compared to other health professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate brain activity differences between paediatric nurses and allied health professionals during pain rating tasks.
- To explore if these differences are influenced by the observed patient population (infant vs. adult) and professional experience.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study utilizing functional MRI (fMRI).
- Compared brain activity in 27 paediatric nurses and 24 allied health professionals rating infant and adult pain from video clips.
Main Results:
- Paediatric nurses rated infant and adult pain higher than allied health professionals.
- Group differences in neural response were observed only during infant pain perception.
- Paediatric nurses showed reduced activation in brain regions associated with cognitive empathy and affective sharing.
Conclusions:
- Neural responses to vicarious pain can differ across healthcare professions and patient populations.
- Professional experience may contribute to observed variations in neural activity related to pain perception.
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