Thesis about empathy in the Health System will be presented en South America and Europe

agosto 28, 2023

UCM PhD student, Grimanessa González Tapia, will participate in numerous international conferences.

In the context of the Fondecyt de Iniciación N°11190052 directed by Dr. Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar, entitled «Rapport and diagnosis in the doctor-patient relationship: A sociolinguistic study of local and migrant doctors in Chile», the PhD student in Psychology, Grimanessa González Tapia, as a thesis student of this project, will present five papers in congresses in Spain, Paraguay, Belgium and Argentina during the course of the current year.

«In all these congresses we will present the results of different stages or sometimes aspects of Grimanessa’s thesis,» says Dr. Lazzaro Salazar, coordinator of the Social Sciences Nucleus of CIEAM. Grimanessa’s thesis, entitled «Perceived empathy in the intercultural doctor-patient relationship: A narrative approach from an attitudinal perspective in chronic patients», seeks to understand the perceptions of perceived empathy of chronic patients in the Public Health System of the Maule Region, comparing care between national and foreign doctors, and, at the same time, seeks to contribute theoretically to the definition of perceived empathy in intercultural health settings to incorporate psychocultural aspects relevant to patients in their relationship with the treating physician.

«For example, at the XIX International Congress on Translation, Text and Interferences organized by the University of Malaga and the University of Cordoba (Spain), last June 9, we presented recommendations for healthcare interpreters in their work of translating and transmitting culturally appropriate psycho-emotional meanings of patients. For this purpose, we used the results of systematic literature reviews and empirical research (through semi-structured interviews with twenty Chilean and foreign chronic patients). In turn, at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference held between July 9 and 14 in Brussels (Belgium), we presented a discursive analysis of patients’ narratives and analyzed the pragmatic aspects of the power structures constructed in the patients’ evaluation of physicians’ clinical practices,» explains Dr. Lazzaro Salazar.

Professor and student also presented the results of the doctoral thesis and the project at the 39th Inter-American Congress of Psychology in Asuncion (Paraguay) and at the 2nd Argentine Congress of Health Communication, organized by the Hospital de Alta Complejidad El Cruce (Buenos Aires). During the rest of the year, they will also make a presentation at the III Jornadas Nacionales y II Jornadas Internacionales de Estudios Lingüísticos in Mendoza in September.

«It is also important to highlight Grimanessa’s commitment to sharing her research findings with the non-academic community. In this sense, together with Grimanessa we awarded the internal project of Fondos Concursables de Vinculación con el Medio Primer Semester 2023, titled «Dialogues between empathy, ethics and interventions in public health». On this occasion, Grimanessa, co-responsible for the project, has been concerned with organizing symposia, seminars and workshops in which different actors of the public health system of the Region can participate, with special emphasis on the participation of users of the system and graduate students in related disciplines. The closing activity of this project will take place on August 26 at UCM’s San Miguel headquarters. Undoubtedly, everything described here are very significant instances for the personal and professional growth of the student, and also contribute in a very positive way to the efforts of internationalization and linkage with the environment carried out by UCM and to the fulfillment of the objectives of my Fondecyt project», concludes Dr. Lazzaro-Salazar.

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