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Measuring Empathy in Health Care

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Abstract

Approaches to measuring empathy and component skills include self-assessment, as well as structured observer ratings quantifying the opportunities for empathy offered by patients during medical encounters and the health-care providers’ responses to these opportunities. In this chapter, we highlight validated self-rated instruments like the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy and the Individual Reactivity Index, as well as patient-rated empathy measurement tools like the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure. In addition, we will describe expert-rated empathy measurement tools like the Empathic Communication Coding System. We will emphasize the potential benefits of these tools as well as areas of further research needed to optimize measurement of empathy.

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Acknowledgments

Melissa Ward-Peterson is currently supported by an NIMHD center grant to the Research Center in Minority Institutions at Florida International University (U54MD012393).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida International University – Citrus Health Network Psychiatry Residency Program, Hialeah, FL, USA

    Gabriel Sanchez

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Melissa Ward Peterson

  3. Center for Children and Families, Department of Psychology, College of Arts Sciences and Education, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Erica D. Musser

  4. Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar Disorder & MSBI Suicide Research Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Igor Galynker

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Simran Sandhu & Adriana E. Foster

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  1. Gabriel Sanchez
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  2. Melissa Ward Peterson
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  3. Erica D. Musser
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  4. Igor Galynker
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  6. Adriana E. Foster
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Correspondence to Gabriel Sanchez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Adriana E. Foster

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, NY, USA

    Zimri S. Yaseen

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Sanchez, G., Ward Peterson, M., Musser, E.D., Galynker, I., Sandhu, S., Foster, A.E. (2019). Measuring Empathy in Health Care. In: Foster, A.E., Yaseen, Z.S. (eds) Teaching Empathy in Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29876-0_4

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