Differences between GP perception of delivered empathy and patient-perceived empathy: a cross-sectional study in primary care

Empathy has positive effects on a range of healthcare outcomes. It is therefore an important skill for a GP. However, the correlation between GP perception of delivered empathy and patient perception of GP empathic communication during consultations is still unclear. To investigate the correlation b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of general practice 2018-09, Vol.68 (674), p.e621-e626
Main Authors: Hermans, Lianne, Olde Hartman, Tim, Dielissen, Patrick W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cross-sectional studies
Empathy
Perceptions
Primary care
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Empathy has positive effects on a range of healthcare outcomes. It is therefore an important skill for a GP. However, the correlation between GP perception of delivered empathy and patient perception of GP empathic communication during consultations is still unclear. To investigate the correlation between GP perception of delivered empathy and patient-perceived empathy. Cross-sectional study in primary care in the Netherlands, between December 2016 and February 2017. GPs and their patients were asked to fill in an empathy questionnaire directly after a consultation. Patient perception of received empathy during the consultation was measured through the Dutch version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire. GP perception of delivered empathy during the consultation was measured with an adapted version of the CARE questionnaire. The authors obtained questionnaires from 147 consultations by 34 different GPs in 16 primary care practices. A total of 143 consultations were eligible for inclusion in the analysis. Mean patient-perceived empathy score was significantly higher than mean GPs' empathy score (42.1, range 20.0 to 50.0 and 31.6, range 24.0 to 41.0, respectively,
ISSN:0960-1643
1478-5242
DOI:10.3399/bjgp18x698381