Measurement of Patient's Perception Levels With Reference to Physician's Empathy: Private Hospitals Scenario.

Alpaslan Mert,Ayşegül Kaptanoğlu,Emir Hasan Olmez

doi:10.7759/cureus.18684

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims at understanding the empathy of doctors and the perception level of patients about it. The survey was conducted including doctors and patients who were cured by these doctors.MethodsPatient’s Perception Scale of Physician Empathy and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy were applied to 70 physicians who worked at 35 private hospitals in Istanbul and 420 patients who received health services from these physicians. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0 program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for statistical analysis.ResultsPhysicians who worked in the internal medicine department had more empathy toward the patients. Physicians who were new to the medical profession or who were young had higher empathy levels. Patients who received health services perceived that the surgeons had more empathy. Moreover, it was found that the empathy perception among the educated patients was significantly higher towards physicians.ConclusionThe perception level of patients for empathy depends directly on the empathy developed by the doctors. Providing better working conditions for the physicians and preparing the educational plans to increase the health information of patients could improve the physician's empathy with the patients and patient will get better health services.

Highlights

Empathy is the most important humanistic part of patient care and symbolizes healthcare and professionalism in medicine at its best [1]
There might be a difference in empathy scores based on the specialization of the physician as well as gender which we have explored in the current study
Both male and female physicians have an equal empathy score indicating that gender does not influence the empathy shown by physicians towards their patients

Summary

Introduction

Empathy is the most important humanistic part of patient care and symbolizes healthcare and professionalism in medicine at its best [1]. Physicians should have a humanitarian attitude towards them and must achieve empathy. Empathy holds a lot of importance in the context of patient care and could be described primarily as a cognitive attribute that involves the experiences of the patients, their concerns, and perspectives along with the ability to communicate this understanding and an intention to help. This is not a one-way benefit; it helps physicians against their professional stress and burnout, thereby benefiting their well-being [4]

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