Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of this paper is to explore the disciplinary and topic trends associated with empathy (E) and compassion (C) in the PubMed health-related literature and assess whether they suggest a sufficient basis for understanding empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care in ways that serve practical ends.MethodsI performed 353 queries on E and C in the PubMed database, searching on E, C, and E AND C alone and with 23 disciplinary and 60 topic terms. I considered the total distribution of results for E, C, and E AND C, the relative distribution of results for E and C, and the relative distributions of results within nursing and medicine because of the importance of E and C to healthcare outcomes.ResultsThe findings reveal a lack of pragmatic perspective suggested by a) semantic overlap between E and C, b) bias toward the psychological perspective of E and C, and c) lack of significant association between E and C and language/linguistics and emotions and the disciplines and topics critical to them that inform pragmatic understanding.ConclusionsThe findings point to a gap between theory and the understanding needed to serve as a sufficient basis for understanding empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care. They suggest there is an opportunity to understand E and C in the light of communicative function where the inextricable association between language and emotion has been illuminated and the potential lies to advance scientific understanding in a way that bridges this gap.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to explore the disciplinary and topic trends associated with empathy (E) and compassion (C) in the PubMed health-related literature and assess whether they suggest a sufficient basis for understanding empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care in ways that serve practical ends
The findings point to a gap between theory and the understanding needed to serve as a sufficient basis for understanding empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care
I performed a general review of the PubMed literature on E and C to uncover disciplinary and topic trends and gaps and assess whether they suggest empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care are understood well enough to serve as a basis for actively shaping empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care
Summary
The aim of this paper is to explore the disciplinary and topic trends associated with empathy (E) and compassion (C) in the PubMed health-related literature and assess whether they suggest a sufficient basis for understanding empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care in ways that serve practical ends. Attention to empathy (E) and compassion (C) in the health-related literature is burgeoning, a trend that can be expected to continue, given the determinant role relationships have been shown to play in the clinical healthcare picture as evidenced by Del Canale et al.’s landmark study in Parma, Italy linking physician empathy and positive clinical outcome for patients with diabetes mellitus [1]; and, Kelly, Kraft-Todd, Schapira, Kossovsky, and Riess’ meta-analysis of randomized control trials associating the quality of patient-clinician relationships to a statistically significant role in healthcare outcomes [2] These studies suggest a need to look more closely at how E and C are represented in the health-related literature since empathic and compassionate relationships and communities of care hold such great promise for reducing burden on public health. Perspectives associated with it that are largely based on studies of non-naturally occurring data (NND), data elicited with researcher intervention (e.g., prompts, roleplays, and surveys), and that many of the disciplinary perspectives and topics important to informing a practical understanding of E and C would be overlooked
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