HighlightsAs with previous research findings relating to the direction of the relationship between burnout and empathy were not unanimous.Only one of the ten studies included in the review supported a positive correlation between burnout and empathy.Eight studies reported a negative relationship between burnout and empathy.Studies included in this review satisfied all of the quality assessment criteria.Burnout is supported as a cross cultural construct.

Hospice patient/family volunteers responded to personality questionnaires–Trait Anxiety Scale, Internal-External Control Scale, Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale–prior to a training program and to the Winget Questionnaire for Understanding the Dying Patient and His Family and the Bugen Coping with Death Scale before and after the training program. Results showed that the volunteers were relatively low in anxiety, internally controlled, and empathic before training. Highly statistically significant differences between the pre- and post training questionnaire scores showed that, following training, the volunteers reported better understanding of patients and their families and felt much more able to cope with death. Subscale scores derived from the Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale were the best predictors of the after training questionnaire responses.

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