The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach
Background: Healthcare professionals’ empathetic behaviors have been known to lead to higher satisfaction levels and produce better health outcomes for patients. However, empathy could decrease over time especially during training and clinical practice. This study explored factors that contributed t...
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Science::Medicine Empathy Medical education Yu, Chou Chuen Tan, Laurence Le, Mai Khanh Tang, Bernard Liaw, Sok Ying Tierney, Tanya Ho, Yun Ying Lim, Evelyn Beng Eng Lim, Daphne Ng, Reuben Chia, Siew Chin Low, James Alvin The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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Background: Healthcare professionals’ empathetic behaviors have been known to lead to higher satisfaction levels and produce better health outcomes for patients. However, empathy could decrease over time especially during training and clinical practice. This study explored factors that contributed to the development of empathy in the healthcare setting. Findings could be used to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of empathy training. Method: A qualitative approach, informed by aspects of grounded theory, was utilized to identify factors that enabled the development of empathy from the perspectives of doctors, nurses, allied healthcare workers and students. Twelve sessions of focus group discussions were conducted with 60 participants from two hospitals, a medical school, and a nursing school. Data was analyzed independently by three investigators who later corroborated to refine the codes, subthemes, and themes. Factors which influence the development of empathy were identified and categorized. This formed the basis of the creation of a tentative theory of empathy development for the healthcare setting. Results: The authors identified various personal (e.g. inherent characteristics, physiological and mental states, professional identity) and external (e.g. work environment, life experience, situational stressors) factors that affected the development of empathy. These could be further categorized into three groups based on the stability of their impact on the individuals’ empathy state, contributed by high, medium, or low stability factors. Findings suggest empathy is more trait-like and stable in nature but is also susceptible to fluctuation depending on the circumstances faced by healthcare professionals. Interventions targeting medium and low stability factors could potentially promote the development of empathy in the clinical setting. Conclusions: Understanding factors that impact the development of empathy allows us to develop measures that could be implemented during training or at the workplace leading to improve the quality of care and higher clinical work satisfaction. |
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Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) |
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Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Yu, Chou Chuen Tan, Laurence Le, Mai Khanh Tang, Bernard Liaw, Sok Ying Tierney, Tanya Ho, Yun Ying Lim, Evelyn Beng Eng Lim, Daphne Ng, Reuben Chia, Siew Chin Low, James Alvin |
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Article |
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Yu, Chou Chuen Tan, Laurence Le, Mai Khanh Tang, Bernard Liaw, Sok Ying Tierney, Tanya Ho, Yun Ying Lim, Evelyn Beng Eng Lim, Daphne Ng, Reuben Chia, Siew Chin Low, James Alvin |
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Yu, Chou Chuen |
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The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach |
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2022 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161359 |
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1613592023-03-05T16:46:07Z The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach Yu, Chou Chuen Tan, Laurence Le, Mai Khanh Tang, Bernard Liaw, Sok Ying Tierney, Tanya Ho, Yun Ying Lim, Evelyn Beng Eng Lim, Daphne Ng, Reuben Chia, Siew Chin Low, James Alvin Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Science::Medicine Empathy Medical education Background: Healthcare professionals’ empathetic behaviors have been known to lead to higher satisfaction levels and produce better health outcomes for patients. However, empathy could decrease over time especially during training and clinical practice. This study explored factors that contributed to the development of empathy in the healthcare setting. Findings could be used to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of empathy training. Method: A qualitative approach, informed by aspects of grounded theory, was utilized to identify factors that enabled the development of empathy from the perspectives of doctors, nurses, allied healthcare workers and students. Twelve sessions of focus group discussions were conducted with 60 participants from two hospitals, a medical school, and a nursing school. Data was analyzed independently by three investigators who later corroborated to refine the codes, subthemes, and themes. Factors which influence the development of empathy were identified and categorized. This formed the basis of the creation of a tentative theory of empathy development for the healthcare setting. Results: The authors identified various personal (e.g. inherent characteristics, physiological and mental states, professional identity) and external (e.g. work environment, life experience, situational stressors) factors that affected the development of empathy. These could be further categorized into three groups based on the stability of their impact on the individuals’ empathy state, contributed by high, medium, or low stability factors. Findings suggest empathy is more trait-like and stable in nature but is also susceptible to fluctuation depending on the circumstances faced by healthcare professionals. Interventions targeting medium and low stability factors could potentially promote the development of empathy in the clinical setting. Conclusions: Understanding factors that impact the development of empathy allows us to develop measures that could be implemented during training or at the workplace leading to improve the quality of care and higher clinical work satisfaction. Published version This study was funded by Geriatric Education and Research Institute’s Intramural Fund (reference number: GERI/1616). 2022-08-29T06:34:17Z 2022-08-29T06:34:17Z 2022 Journal Article Yu, C. C., Tan, L., Le, M. K., Tang, B., Liaw, S. Y., Tierney, T., Ho, Y. Y., Lim, E. B. E., Lim, D., Ng, R., Chia, S. C. & Low, J. A. (2022). The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach. BMC Medical Education, 22(1), 245-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03312-y 1472-6920 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161359 10.1186/s12909-022-03312-y 35379249 2-s2.0-85127499740 1 22 245 en GERI/1616 BMC Medical Education © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. application/pdf |