Uudistuva sosiaalialan osaaminen

Empathy can improve the quality of working life, because it is a powerful component in multiprofessional teamwork. This is one reason why the benefits of empathy need to be recognized more carefully during social studies. Empathy is too often taken for granted  during studies (Grant, Kinman, & Alexander 2014). This is just one reason why the benefits of empathy need to be recognized and explored more carefully there is some evidence that empathy can improve the quality of working life (State of Workplace Empathy). Studies have shown (Bohns & Flynn 2021), that highly empathic individuals are more attuned to others' needs. In other words, “more empathic help-seekers may hold higher expectations that they would receive help if they were to ask for it relative to less empathic help-seekers”. This is an important point to remember, when we consider social workers as helping professionals. There is also research which shows that empathy does not work as a good basis for moral decisions (Bloom 2016)  which means we do not need to be single-minded when considering empathy. However, empathy is a powerful component in multiprofessional teamwork, because by understanding other professionals' frameworks (which are different from your own) and empathizing with them, the whole team is able to be more collaborative in practice (Adamson, Loomis, and Cadell & Verweel 2018). Although the basics of empathy are learned during childhood[1] and  youth[2]opportunities still arise for further development of these skills during adolescence (prosocial behaviors), as well as during working life in the professional context. Qualified Empathy requires practical steps Qualified Empathy is more than just empathy. According our study[3] (Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää 2021), students pointed out that they felt that the QE theoretical framework was beneficial and the concept of “accurate or qualified” empathy, was ‘easier’ to internalize as a tool for action. It helped them to create some distance from the “personal part of the empathy”. We designed the ‘Qualified Empathy’ approach to support students in gaining the skills needed for the professional context. The QE approach is a professional approach, which works to prevent professionals’ risk for burnout, to support awareness of the risk of developing inappropriately intense empathy in client relationships and to explore the meaning of empathy from a wider perspective. According to our definition of QE (Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää, 2017; Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää, 2021[4]), this broader viewpoint can be described as: “Qualified Empathy requires compassion for empathic action and it includes the ability for professional self-reflection, emotional skills and a healthy set of boundaries. Qualified Empathy encompasses the ability to tell the difference between sympathy and empathy, as it includes the capacity to use compassion to act in an empathic way in professional contexts (Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää, 2017). Additionally, the QE professional is someone who has empathic skills and compassion towards themselves, colleagues, clients and the environment. Qualified Empathy is more of a mindset or work orientation that is rooted in ethical thinking. An empathic social worker is able to be a mirror to others and adjusts his or her interactions without immersing into the other’s emotional world or context (Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää 2021). The results of the study[5] demonstrate the progress areas of the students’ developing Qualified Empathy skills. The development stages in the three progress areas are: From emotional reaction to emotional response From understanding to empathic acting From a client perspective to a more systematic approach.       Reflective professionals Adopting a more reflective approach QE becomes more professional in nature. As part of QE, the emotional reaction includes the emotional response, from understanding to empathic acting (even just a smile), and from ‘client perspective’ to a more systematic approach, which sees and meets the world around us. Qualified empathy is a wider, more systematic approach towards our world and the opportunities for empathy which exist in it. As educators, we need to be more active in supporting future professionals in gaining the skills needed for their work in supporting clients living with demanding life situations, life conditions as well as wider more complex issues existing in our world today. Empathy needs action as well as boundaries. Understanding alone is not enough, and our emotional responses need to contribute to the sense that we, and our experiences, are each valuable to one another.                                 Future Trends Currently, there is an ongoing discussion surrounding the place of AI in the social services sector. A recent article by Rosso (2021) in Psychology Today, ‘Can AI Machine Learning Enable Robot Empathy?’ discusses new research from the US. This is cutting edge research which is still out of reach in practice. Until we are able to determine if this type of AI is feasible in, we will continue to need empathic humans working as social and healthcare professionals who are equipped with Qualified Empathy skills. As we ride the waves of the developing technology while navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the World Economic Forum (WEF, 2018) point out that the will need soft skills as much as it will need technological expertise for the journey. In line with this Vossen and Valkenburg’s (2016) study found that social media use related to an increase in adolescents’ cognitive and affective empathy over time. Specifically, adolescents’ social media use improved informants’' ability to understand (cognitive empathy) and share the feelings with peers (affective empathy). Empathy needs to be practiced by professionals as well as individuals in order to achieve a more harmonious and coherent future for us all.   [1] Empathy skills are generally learned in early childhood. One such programme focusing on this age group in a school setting is KiVa Koulu, which has reported positive effects on students’ affective empathy during the school years. According to Garandeau, Laninga-Wijnen & Salmivalli (2021), there is evidence that the effects of the KiVa programme did not depend on students’ popularity, bullying or gender or on the school type or classroom bullying norms. [2] “For boys, levels of prosocial behavior were stable until age 14, followed by an increase until age 17, and a slight decrease thereafter. For girls, prosocial behavior increased until age 16 years and then slightly decreased” (Van der Graaff, J., Carlo, G., Crocetti, E. et al. Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Development and Links with Empathy. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1086–1099 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0786-1). [3] The study was a case study, designed to explore the students’ experiences of their one semester-long educational intervention (EI) (n=20). The research question was “How did the students construct ‘Qualified Empathy (QE)’ as a dimension of their own professional expertise?” In our case, we followed a first year student group’s (n=20) development process in terms of empathy skills during the spring of 2018. The students were 18–30 years old. We collected data by using open questionnaires, learning diaries and written documentation related to the final internship (see table 1.). The intervention had four phases. In pre-assignment (1), students filled out open questionnaires prior to the Individual and Community Counselling (ICC) course [4] Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L.A. and Mäenpää, S. (2021), "An educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathy to social work students in Finland", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-11-2020-0404 [5] Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L.A. and Mäenpää, S. (2021), "An educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathy to social work students in Finland", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-11-2020-0404 Writers Eija Raatikainen, Principal lecturer, a project manager (PhD of Education  & a licensed social worker) Leigh Anne Rauhala, Senior lecturer &  (Master of Social Work) Seija Mäenpää, Senior lecturer (Master of Art) References Adamson K, Loomis C, Cadell S, Verweel LC. (2018), Interprofessional empathy: A four-stage model for a new understanding of teamwork. J Interprof Care. 2018 Nov;32(6):752-761. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2018.1511523. Epub 2018 Aug 30. PMID: 30160548. Bohns K.V. & Flynn F.J. (2021), Empathy and expectations of others' willingness to help, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 168, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110368. Bloom, P. (2016), Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. Ecco. p. 240. ISBN 9780062339348. Garandeau C.F., Laninga-Wijnen, L. & Salmivalli, C. (2021), Effects of the KiVa Anti-Bullying Program on Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Children and Adolescents, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2020.1846541 Grant L., Kinman G., & Alexander K. (2014), What's All this Talk About Emotion? Developing Emotional Intelligence in Social Work Students. Social Work Education 33(7). Raatikainen E., Rauhala, LA. & Mäenpää, S. (2021), An educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathy to social work students in Finland. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education.  (in press). Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L.A. & Mäenpää, S. (2020), Empathy -Is it too often taken for granted? https://blogit.metropolia.fi/uudistuva-sosiaalialan-osaaminen/2020/02/26/empathy-is-it-too-often-taken-for-granted/ Raatikainen, E. (2019), Ammatillista Empatiaa (QE) oppimassa. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/uudistuva-sosiaalialan-osaaminen/2019/04/24/ammatillista-empatiaa-qe-oppimassa/ Rauhala , L.A., Mäenpää, S. & Raatikainen, E. (2018),  Qualified Empathy - the new superpower! Can using aesthetic methods help you flourish? Hiiltä ja timanttia : opettajat pedagogiikan rajapinnoilla, Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, 2018 Raatikainen, E. (2018), Empatian monet kasvot. Kirja-arvio. Sosiaalipedagoginen aikakauskirja, vuosikirja 2018. Suomen sosiaalipedagoginen seura. 117—120. Rauhala, L.A., Mäenpää, S. & Raatikainen, E. (2018), Qualified Empathy - the new superpower! Can using aesthetic methods help you flourish? Hiiltä ja timanttia : opettajat pedagogiikan rajapinnoilla, Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, 2018. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/hiilta-ja-timanttia/2018/08/21/qualified-empathy-the-new-superpower-can-using-aesthetic-methods-help-you-flourish/ Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L. A., & Mäenpää, S. (2017), Qualified Empathy. A key element for an empowerment professional. Sosiaalipedagoginen aikakauskirja, 18, 113–21. Rosso, C. (2021), AI Machine Learning Enable Robot Empathy? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-future-brain/202101/can-ai-machine-learning-enable-robot-empathy Van der Graaff, J., Carlo, G., Crocetti, E. et al. (2018),  Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Development and Links with Empathy. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1086–1099 .https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0786-1). Vossen HGM, Valkenburg PM. Do social media foster or curtail adolescents’ empathy? A longitudinal study. Computers in Human Behavior. 2016;63:118–124. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.040. WEF (2018), The Future of Jobs Report 2018. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Workplace state of Empathy - Executive Summary (2018), https://info.businessolver.com/hubfs/empathy-2018/businessolver-empathy-executive-summary.pdf?hsCtaTracking=7e237aa9-1d60-4cfb-b9a9-2b881143391a%7C0c012412-b9e0-488a-8f56-4c153450c4fa