Statistics on empathy in care

As you know, empathy is baked into the history and culture of nursing.

Nursing professionals consistently demonstrate high levels of empathy when providing care (Onofrei et al., 2023; Rezapour-Mirsaleh et al., 2022).  Patients commonly describe their nurse as highly trustworthy, warm and caring (Ahmadpour et al., 2020) and one study found over 75% of nurses consistently demonstrated high-levels of empathy in practice (Onofrei et al., 2023). However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the reports of patient dissatisfaction and anger have become more prominent within the health care system.

What is driving these trends?

One decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, DeVoe et al. (2009) noted that patient perceptions of ‘low empathy’ among their treating health professionals had increased the likelihood that patients felt angry or dissatisfied with their care.  In this way, empathy is like a warm blanket or ice water: comforting and also very likely to increase satisfaction with care (Aiken et al., 2021). 

We will briefly discuss some environmental pressures facing nurses later in this course; however, we know that sustaining strong nurse empathy is a challenging task in our post-pandemic health care system.  Yi et al. (2021) found that nurses have experienced a decline in their capacity to empathize with the patient experiences of care over the past decade.  This trend seems to be echoed in anecdotal reports of care since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  For example, we see many socio-economically disadvantaged groups now reporting lower levels of provider empathy during routine care interactions (DeVoe et al., 2009).

The vast majority of nurses are highly empathic professionals, but will we continue to embrace these values as health care environments continue to evolve?