Table 2:
Main characteristics of included articles
| Authors (year); country | Title | Main results |
|---|---|---|
| Green et al. (2014)21; Australia | Looking like a proper baby: Nurses’ experiences of caring for extremely premature infants | The article outlines difficulties faced by nurses when caring for an extremely preterm neonate, such as his appearance, protective strategies, and attributing personality. |
| Pentiado et al. (2016)22; Brazil | Love and the value of life in health care: A narrative medicine case study in medical education | Narrative medicine is effective in the humanistic formation of medical students. The reflective writing allowed introspection of the student and an empathic approach. |
| Lee (2017)23; USA | A lesson in balancing education and empathy | A resident reflects on the ethical dilemma of learning about and respecting a dying infant in the newborn nursery. Physicians in training need to practice balancing an inquiring mind with an empathetic one. |
| Refrande et al. (2019)24; Brazil | Nurses’ experiences in the care of high-risk newborns: A phenomenological study | The care of high-risk neonates is broad, involves both subjective and objective issues, and includes the need to understand neonates’ feelings. |
| Petty et al. (2020)25; UK | Exploring the impact of digital stories on empathic learning in neonatal nurse education | The article provides insights regarding digital storytelling as a teaching strategy to enhance empathy in neonatal care. |
| Ilham et al. (2020)26; Australia | Neonates as intrinsically worthy recipients of pain management in neonatal intensive care | Pain management in the neonate is neglected, and this should be understood in an ethical basis. To ensure pain management in these patients, empathy is fundamental. |
| Köktürk Dalcali et al. (2022)27; Turkey | Emotional responses of neonatal intensive care nurses to neonatal death | The emotional responses of NICU nurses to neonatal death was analyzed, and empathy was one of the codes derived from content analysis. |
| Bembich et al. (2022)28; Italy | Empathy at birth: Mother’s cortex synchronizes with that of her newborn in pain | Maternal empathic cortical response to baby pain was guided and synchronized to the newborn’s cortical response to pain. |
| Mufato et al. (2022)29; Brazil | Nurses’ empathy with newborns hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Units | Nurses interact with neonates during their work, and some of these interactions are characterized as empathic. The experience of seeing the neonate in the incubator, the expression of crying, the burden of painful procedures, and the identification of pain stand out. |
NICU, neonatal intensive care unit.