Relationships Between Nurse‐Expressed Empathy, Patient‐Perceived Empathy and Patient Distress
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TL;DR
This study is one of the first to link behavioral measures of nurse empathy to patient outcomes.
Abstract
It is increasingly important that nursing care be associated with measurable patient outcomes. A correlational study examined relationships between nurse-expressed empathy and two patient outcomes: patient perceived empathy and patient distress. Subjects (N = 140) were randomly selected from RNs and patients on medical and surgical units in two urban, acute care hospitals. Nurse-subjects (N = 70) completed two measures of nurse-expressed empathy: the Behavioral Test of Interpersonal Skills and the Staff-Patient Interaction Response Scale. Patient-subjects (N = 70) completed the Profile of Mood States, the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. Findings indicated a negative relationship (r = .71, p < .001) between a set of empathy variables and a set of patient distress variables and a positive relationship between nurse-expressed and patient perceived empathy (r = .37-.47, p < .05). This study is one of the first to link behavioral measures of nurse empathy to patient outcomes.