Case Situation: You serve as a medical social worker in the emergency department of a local hospital. You

have been asked to meet with a woman who was just brutally assaulted and raped by her ex-husband.
a. Engage in the process of preparatory empathy as you prepare yourself for this meeting with the patient.
Describe the results.



What will be an ideal response?


ANS: Students' answers will vary. Preparatory empathy involves envisioning the world and the current
circumstances from another person or group's perspective and experience. Try to anticipate what others are likely to
sense, feel, think, imagine, and do as they meet with you, especially for the first time but for later meetings as well.
Even before an initial face-to-face meeting, anticipatory empathy heightens your sensitivity to possible agendas,
thoughts, feelings about themselves, feelings about you, the presenting problems and issues, and the circumstances.
Through preparatory empathy, you try to anticipate others' subjective experience related to seeking or receiving
social service and to this particular meeting with you. Put yourself in others' shoes to gain increased appreciation for
their motivations and feelings about the contact, their thoughts and feelings about engaging with an authority figure,
and potential issues related to factors such as gender, sexual orientation, stage of life, culture, ethnic background,
and socioeconomic status

Social Work & Human Services

You might also like to view...

A nurse observes other nurses coming to work inebriated, and wonders what might be causing employees of this profession to be coming to work under the influence

The nurse searches online for terms including "drunk nurses" and "alcohol abuse among health care workers" to gain knowledge. She seeks to confirm her idea that stress leads nurses to drink by sifting through previous studies. What research model is this an example of? A) Research-before-theory B) Theory-before-research C) Linear progression D) Spiral model

Social Work & Human Services

) One of the more accurate ways to measure changes in men's and women's respective criminal activity is to

A) study only crimes known to the police. B) look at how many crimes each sex commits annually and calculate for each the percentage increase or decrease from year to year. C) calculate sex-specific arrest rates (the number of arrests per 100,000 of the population) and then determining the sex differential in arrests. D) none of the above

Social Work & Human Services

When conflicts arise in groups that do not have measurable and operational goals, there is no logical way to determine whose view has higher payoffs

a. True b. False

Social Work & Human Services

Which type of group has as its purpose to provide for participants’ entertainment, enjoyment, and experience and allow opportunities for shared interaction, interdependence, and social exchange?

a. recreation group b. recreation-skill group c. socialization group d. self-help group

Social Work & Human Services