The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy

Relationship between increased personal well-being and enhanced empathy among

“…Determining the effectiveness of such interventions requires the ability to measure empathy. A number of approaches including observation, 36,52 response to clinical vignettes, patient assessment, 53 validated survey instruments, 36,37,53–56 and self‐ratings have been used to measure empathy. Each of these approaches has intrinsic limitations 29 .…”

Educating for empathy

“…No study addressed whether the patient's age, gender, ethnicity, disease state, or severity of illness might impact the student's ability to be empathetic. Several authors note that female students score higher on empathy scales 24,38,40,41,49,50 but do not delve further into whether the gender of the patient matters. No author examined whether congruence between the student and patient in age, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status might affect empathy, though these seem likely to have a major impact.…”

“…Sympathy is defined as experiencing another person's emotions, as opposed to appreciating or imagining those emotions. Some authors state that sympathy is wholly distinct from empathy 20,21,24 . These authors note that physicians who sympathize with patients share their suffering, which could lead to lack of objectivity and emotional fatigue, whereas empathy has a uniformly positive impact on physician‐patient interactions.…”

“…Finally, some interventions were evaluated by qualitative analysis of individual or group comments. The well‐known and validated Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy 24 has also been used to assess physician empathy but was not employed in any studies meeting criteria for this article. Table 1 compares empathy measurement tools used in the articles included in this review, and gives sample items.…”

“…The lack of conceptual clarity about empathy also limits these studies. Many authors emphasize that clinical empathy is multidimensional, requiring the interaction of emotive, moral (which we would rename motivational ), cognitive, and behavioral dimensions 19–22,24 . Yet only 3 of the reviewed studies 32,40,44 make this explicit in their teaching philosophy or evaluation strategies.…”