Project Overview
Empathy and compassion are integral to person-centred care. Only a limited number of studies have explored patients' experiences of empathic and compassionate care.
The aim of this study was to explore patients' and their significant others' perceptions of empathic and compassionate healthcare encounters.
This qualitative descriptive international study invited people to describe a personal experience with a healthcare professional that demonstrated either positive or negative examples of empathic and/or compassionate care.
A total of 84 participants from the Pacific region, the United States of America, and Europe reported encounters with nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, and multidisciplinary teams. Analysis revealed four overarching themes: (1) Verbal and non-verbal communication; (2) Clinician attitudes and attributes; (3) The power of small, thoughtful gestures; and (4) Enduring impact of empathic care.
Project team
This project was led by Dr Katie Tunks Leach – Australian Catholic University, Australia
The project team members were:
- Tracy Levett-Jones - University of Technology Sydney, Australia
- Mary-Ellen Barker – University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- Caz Hales – Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
- Bodil Holmberg – Sophiahemmet University, Sweden
- Mats Holmberg – Linnaeus University, Sweden
- Samantha Jakimowicz – Charles Sturt University, Australia
- Helen Rook – Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
- Gwen Sherwood – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
- Linda Streit – Mercer University, United States
Publications
Tunks Leach, K. Barker, M., Hales, C., Holmberg, B., Holmberg, M., Jakimowicz, S. Rook, H., Sherwood, G., Streit, L. & Levett-Jones, T. (2025). Empathy and compassion in healthcare encounters: an exploratory qualitative descriptive study. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. 39:e70006. https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.70006
Barker, M., Tunks Leach, K. & Levett-Jones, T. (2023). Patient’s views of empathic and compassionate healthcare interactions: A scoping review. Nurse Education Today. 131, 105957 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.105957