Importance Of Empathy Research Articles

Does Empathy Have a Cost? Older Adults and Social Partners Experiencing Problems.

Empathy underlies older adults' awareness and responses to their social partners' needs, but it is unclear whether such awareness is beneficial or harmful to older adults' well-being. We examined whether older adults' empathy was associated with having encounters with social partners incurring problems and their own well-being throughout the day. Participants were adults aged more than 65 years from the Daily Experiences and Well-being Study. These older adults (n = 313) rated empathy and indicated social partners' problems (e.g., health, emotional, and financial problems) in a baseline interview. They also reported encounters with social partners and their mood every 3 hr over 5-6 days. Multiple regressions showed that more empathic older adults reported a greater proportion of social partners with major life problems than less empathic older adults. Older adults' empathy was not associated with their contact or negative encounters with social partners experiencing problems. Multilevel models revealed that encounters with these social partners had negative consequences for older adults' mood throughout the day; however, these consequences were reduced in more empathic older adults. This study emphasizes the importance of empathy in late life and refines our understanding of older adults' social lives and well-being. Findings carry implications for interventions that aim to protect older adults' well-being when their close others incur crises.

Special Interest

Book Review| May 01 2019 Special Interest If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating. By Alan Alda. 2017. Random House. (ISBN-13: 978-0812989144). 210 pp. Hardcover, $28.00. The American Biology Teacher (2019) 81 (5): 380. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.5.380 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Special Interest. The American Biology Teacher 1 May 2019; 81 (5): 380. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.5.380 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search Actor Alan Alda presented the PBS program Scientific American Frontiers from 1990 to 2005. In this book, he goes back over his initial difficulty interacting with the scientists he was interviewing and how he overcame it. Scientists tend to use jargon and rehearsed speeches to communicate, which creates a barrier between them and the lay public. Alda used tools from his improv background to connect with the scientists and help them become understandable and relatable to the general public. In this book, Alda and his friends describe their journey to help scientists become better communicators. One of the key points discussed is the importance of empathy: “A deep awareness of the other person is at the heart of good communication.” As a scientist myself, I know the difficulty of sharing the work I am doing with my grandma, my neighbor, or my bus driver. I appreciated Alda's advice to tell... You do not currently have access to this content.

King George’s Medical University: Inculcating a Service Mindset

The case narrates the dilemma faced by Dr Ravi Kant, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of King George’s Medical University, and the steps he took to resolve the same. The widely reputed public hospital had, under the leadership of Dr Ravi Kant, successfully introduced a series of communication interventions in the hospital in 2015. The aim of these interventions was to sensitize the doctors on the importance of empathy, patient-centred care, and its outcomes in line with the recent directives of the Medical Council of India. However, no tangible benefits of these interventions were visible, just yet. Doctor–patient clashes were far more frequent. Many times, the university almost came to a standstill because of flash strikes by the junior doctors and even doctors in residence. The VC was often confronted with disgruntled patients, irritated patient attendants, an angry media and missives from the state government. The key issues highlighted in this case are: How to make the doctors more responsive to the needs of the patient? What additional measures should be initiated to inculcate values of medical ethics and empathy within the doctors? What more could be added to the medical curriculum to bring about a greater change in perspective? Finally, how to develop a service mindset?

Abordando a Relação Clínica e a Comunicação de Notícias Difíceis com o Auxílio das Artes e dos Relatos Vivos: Addressing the Clinical Relationship and Communicating Difficult News with the Aid of the Arts and Living Stories.

Introduction:Clinical Relationship (CR) is a more comprehensive term than doctor-patient relationship and is currently used to describe the health team’s contact with the patient and their families, as well as the team’s interaction with each other. To establish satisfactory interpersonal relationships, it is important to bring together communication and empathy skills that play a key role in building the CR. However, such topics are given little attention during medical training, with a more focused study on diseases and treatments. Rigid protocols and guidelines have accounted for a large proportion of undergraduate medical curricula, leaving less time for discussion of more abstract subjects related to the humanities and the subjectivity of patients, a view that is part of people’s reality.Objectives:To provide spaces and theoretical references for the discussion of topics less addressed in the medical curriculum and to encourage the importance of communication and empathy in health/disease processes.Methods:In view of the importance of providing medical students with humanizing experiences, we have proposed theoretical-practical workshops and conducted a qualitative research in order to evaluate the students’ views on learning about CR themes. In total, 33 second-year medical students participated in the project, by voluntary adhesion in response to an invitation distributed via electronic mail. Six theoretical-practical workshops were offered and executed in small groups and addressing topics such as: empathy, mourning, palliative care, end of life and communication of difficult news. The data collection methods were two focus groups conducted at the end of the six meetings encounters and participant observation, the notes from which were taken in a field diary.Results:Content analysis (Bardin, 2011) was the method chosen to study the results, following transcription and analysis of the speech of the groups. At the end of the analysis, four main categories (and five subcategories) emerged, of which two are highlighted in this article: “Art, cinema and literature evoke feelings: seeking humanism” and “Difficult news in the view of patients – the living experiences”. To this end, we used active methodologies such as small group work, use of videos and excerpts from films, music, reports, reading texts and conversation wheels.Conclusion:The participants’ statements showed satisfaction with the proposed theme and methodologies. We therefore evaluated the use of such techniques to sensitize students, leading them to reflect on the importance of empathy and communication in the work of physicians and health staff, developing interpersonal skills.

Factors Affecting Empathy with Patient among Healthcare Provider Students: A Structural Equation Modeling Study.

ABSTRACTContextIn medicine and health care, empathy is a very important component of relationship between a physician or healthcare provider and patients.AimsThis study was designed to investigate the factors affecting empathy with patient among healthcare provider students using structural equation model.Settings and designCross-sectional studyMaterials and methodsIt was a cross-sectional study to examine the conceptual model based on JSE-HPS. Three hundred ninety-eight students of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran participated in the study. They were selected by quota-stratified sampling. The data were collected by JSE-HPS.Statistical analysis usedTo examine the conceptual model, and SEM was used for ordinal data using WLSMV in Mplus 6.ResultsFindings indicated proper model fit so that “perspective-taking” had a positive effect on “compassionate care”. “Compassionate care” had a positive effect on “standing in patient's shoes”.ConclusionThe results of this study can improve students’ empathic relationships with patients. The “perspective-taking”, “compassionate care” and “standing in patient's shoes” must be emphasized in training programs for medical students providing healthcare in order to familiarize them with the importance of empathy and its role in care.Key messagesEmpathy is truly the heart of the relationship, Perspective-Taking, Compassionate Care, and Standing in Patient's Shoes can be taken into account to improve the empathy and establish empathic relationships with patients. Proper environment is expected for improving the disease consequences by establishing empathic relationships.How to cite this articleKarimi FZ, Abdollahi M. Factors Affecting Empathy with Patient among Healthcare Provider Students: A Structural Equation Modeling Study. Indian J Crit Care Med 2019;23(9):396–399.

Influences on students\u2019 empathy in medical education: an exploratory interview study with medical students in their third and last year

BackgroundEmpathy is beneficial for patients and physicians. It facilitates treatment and improves physical and psychosocial outcomes. The therapeutic relevance of empathy emphasizes the need to help medical students develop their empathic abilities. Our study aimed to identify factors which promote or hinder the development and expression of empathy in medical students during the course of their studies.MethodsWe interviewed 24 medical students (six male and six female students in their 6th semester as well as six male and six female students in their final clinical year) using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Braun & Clarke’s thematic analysis.ResultsWe identified four main themes influencing the development and expression of empathy. 1) Course of studies: hands-on-experience, role models, science and theory, and emphasis on the importance of empathy; 2) students: insecurities and lack of routine, increasing professionalism, previous work experiences, professional distance, mood, maturity, and personal level of empathy; 3) patients: “easy” and “difficult” patients including their state of health; and 4) surrounding conditions: time pressure/stress, work environment, and job dissatisfaction.ConclusionsThe development and use of empathy could be promoted by increasing: hands-on-experiences, possibilities to experience the patient’s point of view and offering patient contact early in the curriculum. Students need support in reflecting on their actions, behavior and experiences with patients. Instructors need time and opportunities to reflect on their own communication with and treatment of patients, on their teaching behavior, and on their function as role models for treating patients empathically and preventing stress. Practical experiences should be made less stressful for students. The current changes implemented in some medical school curriculums (e.g., in Germany) seem to go in the right direction by integrating patient contact early on in the curriculum and focusing more on teaching adequate communication and interaction behaviors.

Empathy and Analogy in Museum Education

ABSTRACTThis article explores concrete pedagogical strategies that leverage the power of empathy and analogical reasoning in facilitated conversations with museum visitors. After defining terms and briefly exploring the importance of empathy in object-based teaching, we introduce analogy and analogical reasoning as tools that museum educators may employ to support empathy in the galleries with visitors. Finally, we offer real, on-the-floor teaching techniques that are grounded in theory and research.

Should physicians be empathetic? Rethinking clinical empathy.

The role and importance of empathy in clinical practice has been widely discussed. This paper focuses on the ideal of clinical empathy, as involving both cognitive understanding and affective resonance. I argue that this account is subject to a number of objections. Affective resonance may serve more as a liability than asa benefit in clinical settings, and utilizing this capacity is not clearly supported by the relevant empirical literature. Instead, I argue that the ideal account of empathy in medicine remains cognitive, though there is a central role for expressing empathic concern toward patients.

Service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in automobile maintenance services

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and the loyalty of car owners. The aim is to understand the relative importance of the various service quality dimensions to Ghanaian car owners as to what drive satisfaction and whether this satisfaction has implication on their loyalty.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey of car owners and relied on partial least squares-structural equation modeling to study the relationship between service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Further moderation analysis based on the number of years of dealing with the mechanic was conducted.FindingsThe result indicates empathy, assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfactions. However, the reliability of the mechanic has no significant positive relationship with the satisfaction of customers. The results also indicate that customer satisfaction has a direct positive relationship with customer loyalty. The results further indicate that empathy and reliability of the mechanic have a significant positive relationship with customer loyalty; however, the assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have no significant relationship with customer loyalty. The moderation analysis indicated no significant differences in the hypothesis tested and the length of years of customers dealing with the mechanic.Research limitations/implicationsThere is the need for mechanics to provide caring and individual attention to car owners, it is also important for mechanics to understand that customers want their cars to be serviced by mechanics who exhibit knowledge and courtesy and also deliver service in a very responsive manner. The appearance of the workshop, equipment and directions are also very important to customers. It is, therefore, important for mechanics do their best to satisfy these customers for them to remain loyal.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate the importance of empathy, assurance, responsive and tangibles in mechanic service delivery. It is, therefore, important for mechanics to consistently provide personal attention, attend to customers in a friendly manner, deliver cars after services, provide information to customers when extra repairs are required and should take the time to explain issues to customers. In addition, it is important for mechanics to screen and employ very courteous employees who can tell customers exactly the kind of services needed as well as communicate effectively on the risks of repairs. Prompt services also seem to be the key to the satisfaction of customers.Originality/valueThe work illustrates and provides some insights and builds on the literature in the area of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty from a developing country’s environment. This is one of the few research works investigating the issue of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in automobile services using data from the sub-Saharan African environment.

Nursing student as patient: experiential learning in a hospital simulation to improve empathy of nursing students.

Empathy is an important factor in the relation nurse-patient. To develop empathy in bachelor nursing students is a challenge in nursing education. There are several small experiential learning methods that develop empathy in nursing students, although not in a hospital simulation. By experiencing the role of a patient, nursing students would learn important aspects of empathy. This research will explore what nursing students learn about empathy in the relation nurse-patient, while they lie in bed as a patient seeing the nurse from another perspective. Qualitative descriptive study on 75 reflections of bachelor nursing students. Students experienced the need for empathy and were confronted with the patient's experiential world, being dependent, enduring hospital life and needing attention from the nurse. The change in perspective in the hospital simulation gives nursing students valuable insights in the importance of empathy in the relation patient-nurse. Four themes were identified: endurance, silent scream for attention, scary dependency and confrontation with the role of patient. Students learned about the possibilities and difficulties of empathy in different stages of the simulation. A hospital simulation is a useful and practical method to teach students empathy from the patients' perspective, on condition that there is a solid preparation for experiential learning.

The effects of middle school art class with an empathy-based learning model

The purpose of this study was to apply an empathy-based learning model developed by Lee et al. (2014) to a middle school art class and document its effects on students’ empathy, self-esteem, and class participation. The participants were 37 ninth-grade students from two middle school classes in Korea (19 in the experimental group and 18 in the control group). The experimental group was placed in an art class using the empathy-based learning model, while the control group was placed in a different art class taught in a traditional, lecture-oriented way. Quantitative data measuring students’ empathy, self-esteem, and class participation were analyzed using independent sample t-tests and MANOVA. A female teacher (age = 34) and 19 students (age range = 14–16, mean age = 14.60) from the experimental group also participated in written interviews to provide more in-depth perspectives about the empathy-based learning model. The results showed that the empathy-based instruction (received by the experimental group) had stronger positive effects on students’ empathy and class participation than the traditional lecture-oriented instruction, but these positive effects were not seen on the students’ self-esteem. Interviews with members of the experimental group indicated that both the teacher and students were satisfied with the empathy-based art class and recognized the importance of empathy in their lives. These results suggest the positive influence of the empathy-based learning model on middle school students. The implications and future directions are discussed.

A wartime partnership: establishing the Free French movement in Canada, 1940–42

This study, which is based on extensive archival material, analyses the establishment of a Free French movement in Canada. By mid-1942, this movement was providing important political, economic and propaganda support to the French external resistance, at a time when the government of Canada still recognized Vichy as the official government of France. The study argues that this movement was successful because it was not simply an appendage of the Free French movement in London, but rather a mutually beneficial partnership of both interest and understanding within the context of a world war. This partnership was forged by French rebels in exile and, primarily but not exclusively, Canadian francophones, in the small towns and cities of western Canada. These early years offer important evidence of the ways local groups and ordinary people can contribute to diplomacy and cultural understanding in wartime. This is particularly true in the case of women, both at the local level and nationally, where Free French propaganda was directed by two women, Elisabeth de Miribel and the Canadian journalist Gladys Arnold. These early contacts, it is argued, also reveal the emotional costs of war, exile and immigration as well as the importance of empathy and humanitarianism.

A Qualitative Exploration of Weight Bias and Quality of Health Care Among Health Care Professionals Using Hypothetical Patient Scenarios.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether weight bias exhibited by health care professionals (HCPs) impacts quality of health care provided to individuals with obesity. HCPs (n = 220; 88% female, 87% nurses) in the Midwest region of the United States were recruited to complete an online survey. In this within-subjects study design, participants completed the Attitudes Towards Obese Persons (ATOP) scale to assess weight bias and responded to 2 (1 person with obesity and 1 person without obesity) hypothetical patient scenarios to evaluate quality of care. A median split was calculated for ATOP scores to divide participants into high or low weight bias groups. Within these groups, thematic analysis was used to uncover themes in quality of care based on participants’ responses to each scenario. The analysis revealed that HCPs in the high weight bias group gave specific diet and exercise recommendations, offered health advice regarding weight loss, and used less teaching discourse when responding to the patient with obesity. In addition, in both weight bias groups, patients with obesity were started on pharmaceutical therapies sooner. The findings of this study suggest a need to educate HCPs on the importance of empathy and compassion when providing treatment to all patients, regardless of weight, to increase quality of care and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

The Moral Importance of Reflective Empathy

This is a reply to Jesse Prinz and Paul Bloom’s skepticism about the moral importance of empathy. It concedes that empathy is spontaneously biased to individuals who are spatio-temporally close, as well as discriminatory in other ways, and incapable of accommodating large numbers of individuals. But it is argued that we could partly correct these shortcomings of empathy by a guidance of reason because empathy for others consists in imagining what they feel, and, importantly, such acts of imagination can be voluntary – and, thus, under the influence of reflection – as well as automatic. Since empathizing with others motivates concern for their welfare, a reflectively justified empathy will lead to a likewise justified altruistic concern. In addition, we argue that such concern supports another central moral attitude, namely a sense of justice or fairness.

Measuring Multidimensional Empathy: Theoretical and Practical Considerations for Osteopathic Medical Researchers.

Osteopathic physicians are increasingly recognizing the importance of empathy for improving patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This review advocates for a multidimensional perspective of empathy, encompassing both affective and cognitive empathy, and highlights situational and dispositional factors relevant to the curtailment of empathy. A review of the utility of self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures that researchers may use to quantify empathy in further research is also provided. The authors encourage members of the osteopathic medical profession to embrace a fuller understanding of empathy.

Examining Empathy As A Communication Technique In The Context of Gender And Cultural Differences: A Review Study

Empathy has several definitions which involve a broad range of emotional states, including caring to help others; also experiencing emotions which may pair with another person's emotions; and caring what another person is thinking or feeling and making differences between the self and the others less different.Empathy helps to communicate better where we can easily understand why people do or say or not say something thus,we can establish a healthy and harmonious relationship with people.Empathy also depends on cultural values,gender and enviromental factors because every people are different and so their ability to establish empathy is to be expected different. Purpose of this review study is to explain the importance of empathy, it’s components and to discuss the effects of gender and culture on empathy.

Rebooting Empathy for the Digital Generation Lawyer

There is a growing preference in today’s technology-saturated society for online interaction via email, text messages, social networks, and instant messaging, rather than real-world interaction through face-to-face or telephonic conversations. For today’s young people—the Digital Generation—this is more than a mere preference; it is a way of life. Research indicates that the movement toward virtual communication comes with negative consequences, such as poor real-world communication skills and underdeveloped social skills. Most significantly, research suggests that the Digital Generation are less empathic than elder generations are. Some researchers speculate that the rising prominence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in everyday life may have contributed to the Digital Generation’s decreased empathy. Today’s young ICT devotees are tomorrow’s future legal professionals. And when the Digital Generation enter legal practice they will find it entails far more than just reading cases and spotting issues. They will be called upon to counsel, to advocate, to persuade, and to adjudicate. To succeed in legal practice the Digital Generation will need strong empathic abilities. There are clear negative implications for the legal profession’s future if successful legal practice requires particular interpersonal skills but ICT usage is preventing the Digital Generation from developing these skills. This article analyzes social science literature regarding declining empathy, the Digital Generation, and technology. It establishes the importance of empathy in legal practice and examines prior suggestions for improving the legal profession’s historically fraught relationship with empathy. It then proposes new strategies to reverse this empathy decline so the Digital Generation may become successful legal practitioners despite—or perhaps even because of—their use of ICTs.

My Child, My Patient.

Many times, we make decisions in our lives that have unanticipated impacts. Decisions made can change our careers and outlook toward life. As a younger doctor, I considered illness and disease abstractions, and good management with optimal outcomes for the patient was our focus, as we strive toward our professional goals. But having experienced the real pain and helplessness that patients and their parents undergo during critical illnesses, the importance of empathy together with the knowledge and skills needed to treat a child should never be undervalued.

A Review of Empathy, Its Importance, and Its Teaching in Surgical Training

There has been much discussion in the medical literature about the importance of empathy and physician communication style in medical practice. Empathy has been shown to have a very real positive effect on patient outcomes. Most of the existing literature speaks to its role in medical education, with relatively little empiric study about empathy in the surgical setting. Review of empathy and its importance as it pertains to the surgeon-patient relationship and improving patient outcomes, and the need for increased education in empathy during surgical training. The published, peer-reviewed literature on patient-physician and patient-surgeon communication, medical student and resident education in empathy, and empathy research was reviewed. PubMed was queried for MESH terms including "empathy," "training," "education," "surgery," "resident," and "communication." There is evidence of a decline in empathy that begins during the clinical years of medical school, which continues throughout residency training. Surgeons are particularly susceptible to this decline as by-product of the nature of their work, and the current lack of formalised training in empathic patient communication poses a unique problem to surgical residents. The literature suggests that empathy training is warranted and should be incorporated into surgical residencies through didactics, role-playing and simulations, and apprenticeship to empathic attending role models.

Teaching Empathy in Healthcare: from Mirror Neurons to Education Technology

While modern medicine is moving towards genetically based personalized treatment, we still marvel daily at the healing power of the therapeutic relationships with patients. We are now closer to understanding where in the brain lies our capacity to view the world from the perspective of other people. Empathy is the ability to identify another person’s feelings and experiences and to view the world from their perspective. In healthcare provider–patient interaction, empathy improves interpersonal communication, fosters therapeutic alliance, correlates with patient and provider satisfaction, and improves patient care outcomes. Although the importance of empathy in healthcare is widely accepted, further work is due in clarifying the dimensions of empathy that are amenable to teaching and defining the role of healthcare providers’ and patients’ perception of empathy in treatment outcomes. Herein we will (1) provide a brief overview of neurobiology of empathy, (2) discuss the dimensions and conceptualizations of empathy as they apply to healthcare professions, and (3) discuss the body of literature on empathy teaching interventions, including technology options, with focus on virtual patient technology for medical, nursing, and allied health professions education.