ArticleGMS Zeitschrift fur medizinische Ausbildung2012
Physician empathy: definition, outcome-relevance and its measurement in patient care and medical education.
Article in GMS Zeitschrift fur medizinische Ausbildung, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed.
- Just Semantics? How Diagnostic Criteria Influence Physician-Patient Narratives in Alzheimer's Disease.Neuro-degenerative diseases · 2026Article
- A longitudinal curriculum for teaching communication skills in undergraduate dental education: Evaluation and self-assessment.GMS journal for medical education · 2026Article
- Twelve Tips to Train Medical Students to Manage Their Uncertainty and to Provide Reassurance to Patients and Their Caregivers.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Hierarchy hurts: a comparative cross-sectional analysis of empathy and its determinants in medical, midwifery, and nursing students.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Shades of acceptance and adjustment; a discursive psychological analysis to showcase empathy in medical students.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Learning Language, Un/Learning Empathy in Medical School.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2025Article
- Relationship between empathy and burnout as well as potential affecting and mediating factors from the perspective of clinical nurses: a systematic review.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- I Want to be Known as a Whole Human Being: A Qualitative Study About Patients' Experiences of Empathy in Health Care.Journal of patient experience · 2025Article
- The relationship between alexithymia, empathy, willingness to fulfill the contract, and communication skills attitudes of rural-oriented tuition-waived medical students of China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Medical students' understanding of clinical empathy - a qualitative exploratory interview study.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Lost in translation: a qualitative study of medical students' experiences of theoretical and practical teaching of empathy.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Recommendations for the quantitative basic evaluation of mind-body medicine courses for university students - results of a consensus-based, systematic decision-making process by experts.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Simulating empathy: A qualitative experiential study of embedded resident learners in an empathy curriculum.AEM education and training · 2024Article
- The ebbs and flows of empathy: a qualitative study of surgical trainees in the UK.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Comparison of empathy profiles of medical students at the start and in the advanced clinical phase of their training.GMS journal for medical education · 2024Article
- Communication skills of medical students: Evaluation of a new communication curriculum at the University of Augsburg.GMS journal for medical education · 2024Article
- Teaching empathy to medical students.The clinical teacher · 2023Article
- A survey of clinical empathy training at UK medical schools.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Measuring patient satisfaction in an outpatient psychiatric clinic. What factors play a role?Annals of general psychiatry · 2022Article
- Empathy, personality traits, and emotional management in 2nd and 4th-year dentistry students: a single-center study.BMC medical education · 2022Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveThe present study gives a brief introduction into 1. the definition of physician empathy (PE) and 2. its influence on patients' health outcomes. Furthermore 3. we present assessment instruments to measure PE from the perspective of the patient and medical student. The latter topic will be explored in detail as we conducted a pilot study on the German versions of two self-assessment instruments of empathy, which are mostly used in medical education research, namely the "Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Student Version" (JSPE-S) and the "Interpersonal Reactivity Index" (IRI).
methodsWe first present an overview of the current empirical and theoretical literature on the definition and outcome-relevance of PE. Additionally, we conducted basic psychometric analyses of the German versions of the JSPE-S and the IRI. Data for this analyses is based on a cross-sectional pilot-survey in N=44 medical students and N=63 students of other disciplines from the University of Cologne.
resultsPE includes the understanding of the patient as well as verbal and non-verbal communication, which should result in a helpful therapeutic action of the physician. Patients' health outcomes in different healthcare settings can be improved considerably from a high quality empathic encounter with their clinician. Basic psychometric results of the German JSPE-S and IRI measures show first promising results.
conclusionPE as an essential and outcome-relevant element in the patient-physician relationship requires more consideration in the education of medical students and, thus, in medical education research. The German versions of the JSPE-S and IRI measures seem to be promising means to evaluate these education aims and to conduct medical education research on empathy.
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