Physician empathy: Definition, outcome-relevance and its measurement in patient care and medical education

Neumann, Melanie; Scheffer, Christian; Tauschel, Diethard; Lutz, Gabriele; Wirtz, Markus; Edelhäuser, Friedrich

doi:10.3205/zma000781

Cited by 57 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…To assess empathy, we further asked the SPs to fill in the IRI (original version: Davis, 1980, 1983, 1996; German version: Neumann et al, 2012). It contains 28 items and covers the following subscales: perspective-taking (i.e., ability to see a situation from someone else’s perspective), fantasy (i.e., ability to identify with characters from books, movies, or plays), empathic concern (i.e., ability to care about others’ feelings and needs) and personal distress (i.e., ability to feel distress in difficult situations).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can students in simulation portray a psychotherapy patient authentically with a detailed role-script? Results of a randomized-controlled study.

Ay-Bryson¹,

Weck²,

Kühne³

2023

Training and Education in Professional Psychology

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The use of simulated patients (SPs) is increasing in popularity in psychotherapy training, but costs can limit their further spread. With a view to potentially lowering costs of recruitment and SP training, we examined whether a detailed patient role-script helped students to simulate a depressive patient more authentically than when they were only given basic information. A randomized controlled study design was applied. Student SPs (N = 59) were randomly allocated to an experimental (i.e., in-depth role-script) or control condition (i.e., text task). SPs' authenticity was evaluated from four different perspectives, including the SPs themselves, the study therapist involved in the simulations, two independent raters, and a licensed therapist. We found in-depth role-scripts to have a significant effect on SPs' authenticity ( p < .001). No correlation was found between SPs' authenticity with SPs' acting and psychotherapy preexperience, empathy, and personality. Authenticity correlated with extraversion (r = .36, p < .01) and the empathic concern scale (r = .27, p < .05) from self-report measures. The students were capable of authentically portraying a patient after receiving an in-depth role-script. Engaging students as SPs is thus reasonable. Detailed role-scripts could be easily implemented into curriculum for peer-simulations. Given the promising findings, future studies should examine the comparison between student SPs and real patients. Public Significance StatementThis study demonstrates that student simulated patients (SPs) are capable of authentically portraying a depressive patient. Using detailed role-scripts and engaging students in simulation-based education could lower SP-associated costs.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can students in simulation portray a psychotherapy patient authentically with a detailed role-script? Results of a randomized-controlled study.

Ay-Bryson¹,

Weck²,

Kühne³

2023

Training and Education in Professional Psychology

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“…Affective empathy is the doctor's ability to emotionally resonate with the patient (Fox et al, 2009;Jeffrey, 2016). Cognitive empathy refers to the doctor's ability to understand the patient's experience or emotion (Hall & Schwartz, 2019;Jeffrey, 2016;Neumann et al, 2012). Behavioral empathy is related to the interactional, communicative process during which patients manifest their experiences and/or emotions in communicative actions to which doctors convey their empathy by means of verbal (i.e., speech) and nonverbal (e.g., gaze, body orientation, intonation) communicative actions (Halpern, 2003(Halpern, , 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been associated with a variety of positive health outcomes such as increased patient satisfaction, improved health outcomes, and patient adherence (Howick et al, 2018;Mentrup et al, 2020). The literature has defined three core components of clinical empathy (i.e., affective, cognitive, and behavioral empathy) that interact with each other to different extents in different medical situations (Hall & Schwartz, 2019;Jeffrey, 2016;Neumann et al, 2012). Affective empathy is the doctor's ability to emotionally resonate with the patient (Fox et al, 2009;Jeffrey, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doctors, Patients, and Interpreters’ Views on the Co-Construction of Empathic Communication in Interpreter-Mediated Consultations: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Video Stimulated Recall Interviews

et al. 2022

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Doctors and patients rely on verbal and nonverbal resources to co-construct clinical empathy. In language-discordant consultations, interpreters’ communicative actions might compromise this process. We aim to explore doctors, patients, and professional interpreters’ perspectives on their own and others’ actions during their empathic interaction in interpreter-mediated consultations (IMCs). We analyzed 20 video stimulated recall interviews with doctors, patients, and interpreters using qualitative content analysis. Doctors and patients found ways to connect with each other on the level of empathic communication (EC) that is not limited by interpreters’ alterations or disengaged demeanor. Some aspects of doctors and interpreters’ professional practices might jeopardize the co-construction of EC in IMCs. The co-construction of EC in IMCs is not only subject to participants’ communicative (inter)actions, but also to organizational and subjective factors. These results provide evidence of the transactional process between the behavioral, cognitive, and affective components of clinical empathy in the context of IMCs.

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“…The ability to communicate empathically is an important skill in every doctor–patient interaction, including those devoted primarily to prescribing and monitoring medication. Empathetic communication can increase the patient’s perception that they are being understood and getting their needs met, thus improving the patient’s satisfaction with the encounter [ 4 , 5 , 20 , 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring patient satisfaction in an outpatient psychiatric clinic. What factors play a role?

et al. 2022

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Introduction Patient satisfaction is defined as the perception that one’s general health care needs are being met. Prior research suggests that positive patient satisfaction with health care facilitates the physician–patient relationship and enhances quality of life. Objective The primary purpose of this study was to assess patient satisfaction (as measured by the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18)) of patients observed by general psychiatry residents and to examine the effects of depression and anxiety on patient satisfaction. A secondary purpose was to explore the effects of three 1-h mentalization-based skills training sessions on the PSQ-18 scores of psychiatric residents. We hypothesized that depressive and anxiety symptoms would negatively impact patient satisfaction. We hypothesized that patients’ satisfaction scores would improve after mentalization training. Methods This was a prospective case–controlled study, enrolling adult patients (n = 157) referred for psychiatric assessment in a psychiatric resident outpatient clinic. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction as measured by the PSQ-18. This outcome was compared to anxiety and depression symptoms as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item scale (GAD-7) questionnaires. Outcome data from the PSQ-18 were compared among residents before and after they completed mentalization training. The data were analyzed with univariate analyses and multiple linear regression. Results Overall the patients were satisfied with clinician communication and interpersonal manner (4.21 ± 0.66 and 4.15 ± 0.69, respectively). The patients score on PHQ-9 was inversely related to their scores on time spent (TS) (p = 0.01) and accessibility/convenience (AC) (p = 0.0009) subscales of the PSQ-18. GAD-7 score was inversely related to patients scores on AC subscale (p = 0.01). Brief mentalization training for the providers did not impact patient satisfaction scores. Conclusions Our study reveals that depression and anxiety can negatively impact PSQ-18 patient scoring in psychiatric outpatients observed for the first time in a resident clinic. However, this study failed to show that a brief mentalization-based training could improve patient satisfaction scores that were already quite high at baseline.

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Physician empathy: Definition, outcome-relevance and its measurement in patient care and medical education

Cited by 57 publications

References 51 publications

Can students in simulation portray a psychotherapy patient authentically with a detailed role-script? Results of a randomized-controlled study.

Can students in simulation portray a psychotherapy patient authentically with a detailed role-script? Results of a randomized-controlled study.

Doctors, Patients, and Interpreters’ Views on the Co-Construction of Empathic Communication in Interpreter-Mediated Consultations: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Video Stimulated Recall Interviews

Measuring patient satisfaction in an outpatient psychiatric clinic. What factors play a role?

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