DSSSB 12 August 2024
Nursing Foundation
Easy

The ability to put oneself in another person's circumstances and feelings is termed as:

Appeared in: DSSSB 12 August 2024

Explanation

  • Empathy is the capacity to put oneself into the psychological frame of reference of another person to understand their thinking, feeling, or behavior.
  • It involves both cognitive understanding of another's perspective and an affective sharing of their emotional state.
  • In a therapeutic context, empathy is crucial for building trust and rapport, but it requires maintaining professional objectivity to provide effective care.
  • This ability to understand and share the feelings of another is distinct from other concepts like truthfulness (veracity) or loyalty (fidelity).

Why Other Options Were Wrong

  • Option B: Veracity is the ethical principle of truthfulness and honesty. It does not involve understanding or sharing another person's feelings.
  • Option C: Sublimation is a psychological defense mechanism where unacceptable impulses are channeled into socially acceptable activities. It is an internal psychological process, not an interpersonal skill.
  • Option D: Fidelity is the ethical principle of being faithful to commitments and promises. It relates to reliability and trustworthiness, not emotional understanding.

Related Visual

Visual explanation — Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
  • Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Therapeutic Communication and Ethical Principles in Nursing as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
  • Empathy is fundamental to building a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship. It enhances patient trust, encourages open communication, and improves patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment.
  • A nurse demonstrating empathy can better assess a patient's needs, including unspoken fears or concerns, leading to more holistic and patient-centered care.
  • What if a nurse consistently shows sympathy instead of empathy? The nurse might experience burnout or compassion fatigue more quickly by taking on the patient's suffering. The patient may feel pitied rather than understood, which can hinder the therapeutic relationship.
How to Approach the Question
  • First, read the question carefully to understand the definition being described: 'The ability to put oneself in another person's circumstances and feelings.'
  • Analyze the core concept. The phrase 'put oneself in another person's shoes' is a classic idiom for this concept.
  • Review each option and recall its definition in the context of nursing and psychology.
  • Option A, Empathy, directly matches the provided definition.
  • Options B (Veracity) and D (Fidelity) are ethical principles, not interpersonal skills of emotional understanding. Option C (Sublimation) is a defense mechanism. Eliminate these as they do not fit the definition.
  • Confirm that Empathy is the best fit. This is a direct recall question based on terminology.
Concept Tested & Keywords
  • Concept Tested: Therapeutic Communication and Ethical Principles in Nursing
  • Stem keywords: ability, put oneself, another person's circumstances, feelings
  • Lead-in keywords: termed as

Question ID

QoeqNlXjxYT72r_qwMa5fE

Reference Book

E6 Kaplan Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry-2022 (pp 1-3768 of 3768) p. 2381-2383

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) p. 1437-1439

Practise the full DSSSB 12 August 2024

Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.

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