Being human means being in relationship with others. Humanization includes the building of relationships in the contacts made between people. Even if the primary goal of nursing is said to be the provision of service that helps patients to solve their own problems, this goal would involve a helping relationship between two human beings, the nurse and the patient / family. Humanizing professional nursing includes communicating and relating interpersonally with patients in such a manner that the patients sense warmth and acceptance and can report feeling good about their care.
The interpersonal skills demonstrated by the nurse may affect the quality of care as perceived by the patient. However, a lack of concern for people as human seems to be all too common, and also the way of concern seems to be different from country to country. This study had two major purpose. One was to determine if an American constructed scale is appropriate for use with Korean subject. Another was to determine the dimensions of facilitative helping relationship to Korean people. The subjects of this study were 635 people, 306 men and 329 women, between the ages of 25 and 69, residing in Kyung-Ki, Kyung-Sang, Chung-Chung, and Chun-La provinces and in Seoul. Data was collected from June, 1 to July 30, 1989. The tool being tested in this study was Kim´s Korean. Empathy Construct Rating Scale, translation of Lamonica´s Empathy Construct Rating Scale.
The results are summarized as follows.
1. Intitial analysis
Internal consistency reliability was tested by Cronbach a, Corrected item total correlation, and Correlation matrix. The Cronbach a level was .960, but there were 32 items below .35 in the Correted item total correlation and with negative correlations in the Correlation matrix.The construct validity was tested by Factor Analysis using the principal component metho i and a varimax rotation. Seven factors had eigen values of over 1.0.
The results of the initial analysis suggested the need for reanalysis after the deletion of 32 items.
2. Further analysis
By using the same statistical methods 52 items after the deletion of 32 items, the Cronbach a level was .949. There were only 2 items below .35 in the Corrected item total correlation but there were no negative correlations. In the construct validity test, four factors has an eigen value of over
1.0. Factor 1 represented empathy, composed of active listening, understanding others and active concern. Factor 2 represented lack of empathy which can be same component as empathy. Factor 3 represented warmth, enriched by nonverbal components. Factor 4 represented respect including involvement and recognize others values and ability.
As the above results, empathy is not simply a satisfactory construct but a necessary construct component for Korean people. For the Koreans, who value calm and patient behavior, empathy, warmth and respect are important components in the facilitative helping relationship. Only 52 items among 84 items are appropriate for use with Korean subject.
These results contribute to the determination of essential components of facilitative helping relationship and to implication for educational programs toward the development of nurse-patient facilitative relationship.
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