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Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

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Medical Specialties

Thomas Jefferson University

Series

2002

Empathy

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Physician Empathy: Definition, Components, Measurement, And Relationship To Gender And Specialty, Mohammadreza Hojat, Joseph S. Gonnella, Thomas J. Nasca, Salvatore Mangione Md, Michael Vergare, Michael Magee Sep 2002

Physician Empathy: Definition, Components, Measurement, And Relationship To Gender And Specialty, Mohammadreza Hojat, Joseph S. Gonnella, Thomas J. Nasca, Salvatore Mangione Md, Michael Vergare, Michael Magee

CRMEHC Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: There is a dearth of empirical research on physician empathy despite its mediating role in patient-physician relationships and clinical outcomes. This study was designed to investigate the components of physician empathy, its measurement properties, and group differences in empathy scores.

METHOD: A revised version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (with 20 Likert-type items) was mailed to 1,007 physicians affiliated with the Jefferson Health System in the greater Philadelphia region; 704 (70%) responded. Construct validity, reliability of the empathy scale, and the differences on mean empathy scores by physicians’ gender and specialty were examined.

RESULTS: Three meaningful factors …