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Published on: June 21, 2010
The concept-in-action "Putting Oneself in Someone's Place": A three-year qualitative study of nursing students'
1University Hospital of Montpellier, 371 avenue du Doyen Gaston Giraud, Montpellier 34295 CEDEX 5, France.
Aim:
This study examines the development of interactional schemes among nursing students, focusing on the concept-in-action "putting oneself in someone's place" and its relationship with empathy.
Background:
The nurse-patient relationship constitutes an essential foundation of nursing practice. While empathy is considered a crucial relational competency, the mechanisms through which students develop this competency remain underexplored.
Design:
A three-year longitudinal qualitative study, anchored in the framework of professional didactics, examining the evolution of nursing students' interactional schemes.
Methods:
Twelve nursing students were followed throughout their training program. Data were collected through video recording of real interactional situation between nursing students and patient and self-confrontation interviews, then analyzed according to Vergnaud's scheme components.
Results:
Students frequently mobilize the concept-in-action "putting oneself in someone's place" to guide their interactions with patients. Unlike empathy, this concept relies on social projection whereby students apply their own expectations and experiences to the patient's situation. This approach facilitates navigation through interactional uncertainty but demonstrates limitations in recognizing patient specificity.
Conclusions:
The identified concept-in-action differs significantly from empathy as defined in nursing science. It potentially represents an intermediate stage in the development of relational competencies. The findings underscore the importance of pedagogical strategies that facilitate the transition from a projective approach to a more nuanced empathy centered on patient alterity, essential for personalized care.
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