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BACKGROUND: Empathy, the ability to understand a patient’s feelings and act on it accurately, is a core aspect of an effective and therapeutic consultation. Empathy has been found to enhance diagnostic accuracy and increase patients’ satisfaction. Studies in nursing and medical field suggested that empathy plays a key role during clinical consultations, however, research on empathy during dietetics consultations is lacking.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the levels of empathy perceived by patients of final year undergraduate dietetics interns in outpatient settings.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 52 participants recruited from three government hospitals within Klang Valley and Negeri Sembilan. A questionnaire on patients’ perception of empathy, Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure, was self- administered. Additional information collected included patients’ and dietetics interns’ socio-demographics.
RESULTS: Female patients rated their dietetics interns in the CARE measure questionnaire higher than male patients (38.49 vs. 37.27, p>0.05). The Chinese patients scored the empathy level of the interns highest (39.60). As for the interns’ gender and ethnicity, patients scored the males higher (40.88 vs. 38.19, p>0.05) and the interns of Chinese ethnicity higher than the non-Chinese interns (38.75 vs. 38.00, p>0.05).
CONCLUSION: Patients’ gender and ethnicity as well as the dietetics interns’ gender and ethnicity did not have significant impact on how the patients scored their dietetics interns during dietetics consultations. Future research should incorporate other languages for the CARE measure questionnaire and to expand the study into private settings to build the current base of knowledge.
Keywords: Empathy, Dietetics Interns, Patients’ Perceptions