Background and aims Chronic pain not only affects the person in pain, but can also have a negative impact on relationships with loved ones. Research shows that chronic pain is associated with difficulties in marital relationships, which in turn is related to a variety of negative outcomes such as psychological distress and conflict within the family. This suggests that couples where chronic physical pain is present also struggle with emotional pain and relationship problems, and thus targeting relationship skills and interpersonal functioning might be helpful for these couples. Although studies in this area are promising, their numbers are few. In the present study, validation as a way of communicating is suggested for handling emotional expression in interpersonal interactions. Validation communicates understanding and acceptance of the other person's experience, and it has been shown to have a down-regulating effect on negative emotions. It has previously been demonstrated to be important for these couples. However, the feasibility and effects of increasing partner validation in these couples are unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate if a brief training session in validation for spouses would result in more validating and fewer invalidating responses towards their partners with pain, and to investigate if changes in these behavioural responses were associated with changes in emotion and pain level in the partner with pain. Methods Participants were 20 couples where at least one partner reported chronic pain. The study employed a within-groups design in which spouses of people with pain received validation training (without their partner's knowledge), and their validating and invalidating responses were rated pre- and post-intervention using a reliable observational scale. Also, positive and negative affect and subjective pain level in the persons with pain were rated pre- and post-intervention. Results Results showed that the validation training was associated with increased validating and decreased invalidating responses in the partners. Their spouses with chronic pain reported a decrease in negative affect from pre- to post-training. Conclusions Our results indicate that the partner or closest family member, after brief validation training, increased validating responses and decreased invalidating responses towards the person with pain, which had an immediate positive impact on emotions in the other person. Implications This study suggests that using validation in interpersonal interactions is a promising tool for couples where chronic pain is present.
Objective data show that medical students can learn empathetic validation techniques readily. Validation improves communication and satisfaction and may be appropriate for training medical professionals.
In a clinical psychology training context, there is a need to examine students’ theoretical knowledge as well as their professional competence. One promising method to assess students’ professional competence is the Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). In this report, we describe and discuss the implementation of OSCE on a clinical psychology programme at a university in Sweden, including lesson learned regarding the structure and content for this examination. We also report on preliminary results, in which we explored students’ perceived competence and worries, and their supervisors’ reports regarding their clinical practicum, in relation to a new curriculum that includes more simulation-based elements (including the OSCE) than the old curriculum. Results showed that students on the new curriculum reported lower levels of perceived competence before the clinical practicum, but increased significantly more over time in comparison to students on the old curriculum. These results are discussed in relation to the potential role of OSCE in clinical psychology students’ development of professional competence. Due to methodological limitations, these results should be interpreted with caution and should be viewed as exploratory. All in all, this report can be viewed as a guideline for implementation of OSCE on similar programmes in psychology.
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