ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2022
More than a feeling? What does compassion in healthcare 'look like' to patients?
Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- From 'Little Things' to 'Seagulls': A Mixed Methods Exploration of Patients' Experiences of Person-Centred Compassionate Care in General Medical and Surgical Wards.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- How Do Doctors Sustain Compassion in Healthcare? A Structural Analysis of Compassion-Maintaining Strategies.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Further Development and Validation of a Measure of Compassionate Healthcare in Action.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Relationship between hospitalised patients' perceptions of individualised and compassionate nursing care: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- It's More than Warm Communication: A Pre-Registered Analysis of Patient's Compassion Priorities.Journal of patient experience · 2026Article
- Situated generosity in clinical care: A mixed-methods study of STI services in China.PloS one · 2026Article
- Identifying physicians' views on compassionate care in daily clinical practice: a multicentre Q-methodology study in Belgium.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway-Beliefs About Compassion Predict Care and Motivation to Help Among Healthcare Professionals.Journal of clinical nursing · 2025Observational
- Having a More Compassionate Doctor Does Not Mean Patients Will Feel More Cared for: An Empirical Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Empathy in Wound Care: A Scoping Review of Its Role, Impact, and Barriers to Person-Centred Healing.International wound journal · 2025Article
- Exploring Compassionate Care in Virtual Rehabilitation: Qualitative Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2025Article
- Nurturing compassion in neonatal end-of-life care: a qualitative exploration of palliative care nurses' roles and experiences.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Medical practitioner compassion: Development and validation of a compassion competency questionnaire.African journal of psychological assessment · 2025Article
- Compassionate Behavior of Clinical Faculty: Associations with Role Modelling and Gender Specific Differences.Perspectives on medical education · 2025Article
- Understanding how virtual care has shifted primary care interactions and patient experience: A qualitative analysis.Journal of telemedicine and telecare · 2025Article
- Patient involvement in the biopsychosocial integrated primary care model: A qualitative study in three health districts of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- The Validation of the Sinclair Compassion Questionnaire (SCQ) and SCQ Short Form in an English-Speaking U.S. Population: A Patient-Reported Measure of Compassion in Healthcare.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Exploring the impact of compassion and leadership on patient safety and quality in healthcare systems: a narrative review.BMJ open quality · 2024Review
- "It's beautiful and it's messy and it's tragic": exploring the role of compassion in the eating disorder recovery processes of 2S/LGBTQ + Canadians.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
- Item development for a patient-reported measure of compassionate healthcare in action.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveCompassion is important to patients and their families, predicts positive patient and practitioner outcomes, and is a professional requirement of physicians around the globe. Yet, despite the value placed on compassion, the empirical study of compassion remains in its infancy and little is known regarding what compassion 'looks like' to patients. The current study addresses limitations in prior work by asking patients what physicians do that helps them feel cared for.
methodsTopic modelling analysis was employed to identify empirical commonalities in the text responses of 767 patients describing physician behaviours that led to their feeling cared for.
resultsDescriptively, seven meaningful groupings of physician actions experienced as compassion emerged: listening and paying attention (71% of responses), following-up and running tests (11%), continuity and holistic care (8%), respecting preferences (4%), genuine understanding (2%), body language and empathy (2%) and counselling and advocacy (1%).
conclusionThese findings supplement prior work by identifying concrete actions that are experienced as caring by patients. These early data may provide clinicians with useful information to enhance their ability to customize care, strengthen patient-physician relationships and, ultimately, practice medicine in a way that is experienced as compassionate by patients. PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This study involves the analysis of data provided by a diverse sample of patients from the general community population of New Zealand.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.