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अमूर्त

Physician Self-Reported Use of Empathy During Clinical Practice

Amber R. Comer, Lyle Fettig, Stephanie Bartlett, Lynn D’Cruz, Nina Umythachuk

Background: The use of empathy during clinical practice is paramount to delivering quality patient care and is important for understanding patient concerns at both the cognitive and affective levels.

Research Objectives: To determine how and when physicians use empathy when interacting with their patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 76 physicians working in a large urban hospital was conducted in August of 2017. Physicians were asked a series of questions with Likert scale responses as well as asked to respond to openended questions.

Results: All physicians self-report that they always (69%) or usually (29.3%) use empathic statements when engaging with patients. 93.1% of physicians believe that their colleagues always (20.7%) or usually (69%) use empathic statements when communicating with patients. Nearly one-third of physicians (33%) indicated that using the words “I understand” denotes an empathic statement. While 36% of physicians’ reported that they would like to receive more training or assistance about how and when to use empathy during clinical practice.

Conclusion: Despite the self-reported prevalent use of empathic statements, one-third of physicians indicate a desire for more training in what empathy means and when it should be used in a clinical setting. Additionally, nearly one-third of physicians in this study reported using responses that patients may not perceive as being empathic, even when intended to be empathic. This suggests that many physicians feel uncertain about a clinical skill they believe should be used in most, if not all, encounters.