Patient's Views of Empathy

Patient's views of empathic and compassionate healthcare interactions: A scoping review

Compassion and empathy are integral to safe and effective patient care. However, to date, most studies have focused on exploring, defining, measuring and analysing empathy and compassion from the perspective of researchers or clinicians. There has been limited attention to the perspectives of patients. This scoping review mapped the literature to identify patients' views of healthcare provider behaviours that exemplify empathic and compassionate interactions. Two overarching and interconnected categories of behaviours were identified as indicative of empathic/compassionate encounters: (1) communication skills such as listening, touch, body language, eye contact and positive demeanour; and (2) helping behaviours demonstrated by small acts of kindness that go beyond routine healthcare.

Source: 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