Having a More Compassionate Doctor Does Not Mean Patients Will Feel More Cared for: An Empirical Study

Background: Compassion is central to healthcare. It is valued by both patients and physicians and predicts better outcomes for patients, physicians, and healthcare organisations. Whilst most studies to date have focused on providers' expression of compassion, the current report was designed to focus on the patient, specifically identifying patient and physician variables predicting the patient experience of compassion from physicians.

Objectives: To identify the predictors of patient experience of compassion.

Design: An anonymous cross-sectional online survey study conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Participants: One thousand sixty-five patients were recruited from the community, followed by the recruitment of 219 physicians based on patients' referrals.

Main measure: Patient experience of physician compassion.

Key results: Patient-level predictors only explained 1.7% and physician-level 2.9% of the variance in patient experience of compassion (PEC). Patient age (β = 0.08, p < 0.05) and being diagnosed with serious chronic illness (β = 0.08, p < 0.05) predicted reports of greater compassion from physicians, whereas better self-reported health (β = - 0.12, p < 0.01) predicted less. Patients reported experiencing greater compassion when physicians were younger (β = - 0.15, p < 0.05), but physician trait compassion was unrelated (p > 0.05) and reports of physician behaviours that should signal compassion were only marginally significant (p = 0.06).

Conclusions: Our data highlight how little is known about the patient experience of compassion and imply that the patient experience of compassion may or may not be related to physician compassion. Consequently, we need to supplement our ongoing study of the origins and determinants of compassion in healthcare providers with an equally systematic, rigorous, and empirically based study of the patient experience of compassion from providers.