Empathy of Workers in Helping Professions The term empathy means the ability to understand emotions of other people. It is the person´s ability to understand the mental condition of the other person with whom he or she is in immediate contact. Such understanding makes it possible to understand emotions, thinking, acting, behavior and attitudes of other people. To empathize with someone the person needs to efficiently focus and concentrate on the other person and to have the sufficient will to do so. Empathy is a complex psychological experience. The objective of the thesis is to determine whether the attitudes to empathy and experience of difficulties associated with empathy are different among personal assistants and nurses. The research was conducted among personal assistants operating in the district of České Budějovice and among nurses working in the hospital in Jindřichův Hradec. The respondents were of diverse ages with a different representation of men and women. The method of the research was inquiry with a questionnaire technique. I formulated three hypotheses in total. All the hypotheses have been confirmed by the completed research. The thesis may be used as a source of information for the general public, as well as for teaching purposes.

The profession of general nurse is very demanding. The International Labour Organisation and World Health Organisation believe it to be one of the riskiest jobs. Having completed difficult studies nurses often leave their jobs for other positions due to insufficient financial reward which is inadequate to the physical and mental load. The issue of lack of nurses emerged in the Czech Republic as early as before 2004. This situation worsened after the country{\crq}s association with the European Union because nurses began to use the free movement of persons on the labour market. They find work in more attractive industries which are not so demanding in personal and working life. Workers cannot keep up with a pace of work for a long time, unless their mental and physical health is properly looked after. Overloading often results in dissatisfaction and fluctuations. This diploma thesis maps the level of general nurses' departures to other professions on the labour market, which are listed in particular. The survey carried out is quantitative. It employs the method of enquiring persons by means of anonymous questionnaires. The results entail that the level of fluctuations shows a rising tendency. This is caused mainly by low financial remuneration and the impact upon the family and personal life. Possible solutions may include higher salary, higher social respect, saturation of the lack of personnel, application of fundraising, supervisions or employee benefits. It is essential to emphasise the prevention during professional studies. I have chosen the topic of general nurses{\crq} fluctuations mainly because it is a highly charged issue and because I felt that it was necessary to point out a problem that I experienced myself. As modern nursing care is developing, the demands for medical staff are increasing; unfortunately this is not in proportion to the amount of prevention devoted to the issue of workload. I attempted to outline the causes of nurses{\crq} fluctuations and mention also possible ways of preventing the outflow of nurses from this strenuous, yet beautiful and socially irreplaceable job.

The Thesis deals with the questions of psychosocial load at work for nurses and social workers. The Thesis is divided into two sections. The theoretical part deals with definitions of terms like caring professions, load and stress, then load at work and psychosocial load. There is also a brief characteristic of the professions of a nurse and a social worker. The aim of the empiric part was to find out on a selected sample of respondents (i.e. nurses and social workers) how the respondents perceive the character of their psychosocial load at work and whether they are at risk of burnout syndrome, to find out whether nurses or social workers perceive the psychosocial load more intensely and whether there is a difference in the risk of burnout syndrome between them. A quantitative questioning method and questionnaire technique were applied on data collection and processing in the research part of the Thesis. An anonymous questionnaire was used for the investigation. The questionnaire preparation was based on a questionnaire provided by my thesis guide. The original questionnaire was more extensive and was only designed for nurses, which was why I had to select suitable items and add some special items applicable on nurses as well as social workers. The questionnaire consisted mainly of closed questions where the respondents chose from five answers the one best corresponding with their own opinion. I set 3 hypotheses before starting the research itself. The questionnaire answers were processed both, manually by means of the stroke method and by a statistic programme SPSS. Segment and bar graphs in Microsoft Office Excel were used for graphical interpretation of the results. After evaluation of the questionnaire research results I found out that the previously set hypothesis H1 suggesting that nurses and social workers perceive various elements of their psychosocial load differently, was confirmed, hypothesis H2 suggesting that nurses are more loaded by the work with patients/clients than social workers was not confirmed, and hypothesis H3 suggesting that nurses are at higher risk of burnout syndrome than social workers was confirmed. The results of my thesis may serve to inform general public as well as professionals on the problems in question. They may also serve as a possible incentive for managerial staff to pay higher attention to the problems of psychosocial load at work among caring professions at individual medical care facilities. The results may also serve as a base for further studies and research in the field.

This thesis discusses the risk of occurrence of the criminal behaviour among people working in the field of helping professions. It also mentions specific criminal offences that could be committed due to the nature of helping professions. The thesis describes moral attributes of helping workers which could prevent criminal acts. It also suggests some ways of client protection against the abuse of power of helping profession workers

The aim of this thesis is to examine how ethical dilemmas can be assessed and addressed by the various ethical theories. These are dilemmas experienced by the help workers who encounter within their profession with a group of mistreated and abused children. First part of the thesis provides the description of the specific concepts related to work. The following section is devoted to factors that may influence the emergence of a dilemma and which are reflected within the solutions of the dilemmas. The main part of the thesis deals with the ethical analysis of specific dilemmas identified. Individual dilemmas are analyzed using the literature and ethical approaches. To each dilemma a reflection of its solutions is attached according to ethical theories and ethical codes of the workers from which possible insufficiencies arise. The thesis is concluded by the chapter on the proposed solutions of this situation and the practical benefits of the work.

This thesis is based on analytical methods stemming from established theory and uses them to examine the issue of boundaries in helping professions. The purpose of the thesis is to understand the specific aspects of a relationship between a physically disabled client and their assistant, as well as the subjective perception of the boundary in a helping relationship. The research data had been collected through seven interviews with personal assistants. An analysis of this data has brought results in the form of a description of a personal assistant's profession and a summary of factors that play a significant role in establishing the relationship. Out of all the discovered topics, the relationship plays the most fundamental role and it has shown to consist of several levels - proffesional, friendly, parental or sibling and sexual. Boundaries become established within these levels in various forms and degrees depending on personal, relationship or situational factors. This issue represents a complex and multilayered topic with a vast array of paradoxes and dilemmas. The respondents do not perceive boundaries as something static, unchanging or even absolutely necessary. Just like the relationship itself, the boundaries within - if present - undergo a process of development during which they...

(in English): My thesis refers to social work in hospitals through the eyes of helping professions in the territory of the Prague capital. The thesis is more specifically related to the health-social work which is considered a subdiscipline of social work. The aim of the thesis is to obtain the view of the employees of the assisting professions who work in hospitals on social work and, as such, work of health-social employees. The entire thesis is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part introduces readers to the profession of social work, its ethics and values. This part presents the social worker, his qualifications and job description. Next, it deals with the quality of social work and shortly presents Quality Standards of social services and provides the insight into the historical background of social work. The second chapter deals with social work in the health sector, its legislative framework, health-social worker - his qualifications, job description and competences. The end part of the second chapter provides an inspiration from abroad respectively from the United States of America and Finland. Chapter three covers assisting professions, their definitions, divisions, characteristics and job descriptions of different professions. In the next chapter we can...

Met die oog daarop om 'n basisteorie vir familiepastoraat te ontwerp, word verskeie basisteoretiese konsepte geidentifiseer en bespreek. Dit is veral die relasionele definiering van families - eerder as die tradisionele biologiese definiering - wat van fundamentele belang vir basisteoretiese besinning is. Hierdie 'ekologiese' verstaan van families, sluit familiesisteme van alle vorms in en hou rekening met huidige sosiologiese realiteite sowel as bepaalde teologiese perspektiewe. In aansluiting by die relasionele definiering van families, het familiepastoraat 'n verhoudingsfokus en werk dit met 'n multidimensionele perspektief wat op al die dinamiese verhoudingsprosesse en -fases binne familiesisteme gerig is. In verbondenheid met die gemeente, benader familiepastoraat families as ekologiese geloofsisteme en funksioneer dit in die lig van die evangelie asook doelbewus binne koninkrykskonteks. In die slothoofstuk word al die sentrale basisteoretiese konsepte geintegreer tot 'n teoretiese geheel. Die basisteorie vir familiepastoraat, wat hier ontwerp word, kan kemagtig soos volg geformuleer word: Familiepastoraat is gesprekmatige verhoudingsorg van die ekologiese familie en dit geskied binne koninkrykskonteks. / For the purpose of developing a basic theory for family pastoral work, several basic theoretical concepts are identified and discussed. The defining of families in terms of relations - rather than the traditional biological defining - is of fundamental importance for basic theoretical reflection. This 'ecological' understanding of families includes families of all shapes and forms, whilst it also reflects sociological realities and it takes into account certain theological perspectives. The aim of family pastoral work is synchronised with the relational defining of families and focus, therefore, on the multiple dynamic relational processes and phases within family systems. For this manifold relational focus, family pastoral work operates with a multidimensional perspective. The basic theory developed for family pastoral work, can be formulated as follows: Family pastoral work is dialogical care of the relationships of ecological families and it operates within context of the Kingdom. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical theology)

Met die oog daarop om 'n basisteorie vir familiepastoraat te ontwerp, word verskeie basisteoretiese konsepte geidentifiseer en bespreek. Dit is veral die relasionele definiering van families - eerder as die tradisionele biologiese definiering - wat van fundamentele belang vir basisteoretiese besinning is. Hierdie 'ekologiese' verstaan van families, sluit familiesisteme van alle vorms in en hou rekening met huidige sosiologiese realiteite sowel as bepaalde teologiese perspektiewe. In aansluiting by die relasionele definiering van families, het familiepastoraat 'n verhoudingsfokus en werk dit met 'n multidimensionele perspektief wat op al die dinamiese verhoudingsprosesse en -fases binne familiesisteme gerig is. In verbondenheid met die gemeente, benader familiepastoraat families as ekologiese geloofsisteme en funksioneer dit in die lig van die evangelie asook doelbewus binne koninkrykskonteks. In die slothoofstuk word al die sentrale basisteoretiese konsepte geintegreer tot 'n teoretiese geheel. Die basisteorie vir familiepastoraat, wat hier ontwerp word, kan kemagtig soos volg geformuleer word: Familiepastoraat is gesprekmatige verhoudingsorg van die ekologiese familie en dit geskied binne koninkrykskonteks. / For the purpose of developing a basic theory for family pastoral work, several basic theoretical concepts are identified and discussed. The defining of families in terms of relations - rather than the traditional biological defining - is of fundamental importance for basic theoretical reflection. This 'ecological' understanding of families includes families of all shapes and forms, whilst it also reflects sociological realities and it takes into account certain theological perspectives. The aim of family pastoral work is synchronised with the relational defining of families and focus, therefore, on the multiple dynamic relational processes and phases within family systems. For this manifold relational focus, family pastoral work operates with a multidimensional perspective. The basic theory developed for family pastoral work, can be formulated as follows: Family pastoral work is dialogical care of the relationships of ecological families and it operates within context of the Kingdom. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical theology)

The work deals with the aspects of the role and responsibility of a worker in helping professions at work with a client who lost their meaning of life. The work answers the questions on what sphere of knowledge the helper is supposed to have to be able to provide a high-quality and expert care. Life situations are mentioned here, which presuppose the loss of meaning of life as well as the riscs of loss of meaning of life are evaluated. Also the role and responsibility of the worker in helping profession is outlined. The work was based primarily on literature by existential-minded authors and on professional literature focused on psychology, psychiatry, social work and ethics.