SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Development of a Tool to Measure Clinician Compassion as Perceived by Hospitalized Patients

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This study aimed to develop and validate a tool that measures hospitalized patients’ perceptions of clinician compassion. Compassion is viewed as an important part of quality healthcare and may improve patient outcomes, satisfaction, information sharing, clinician wellbeing, and burnout. Existing compassion measures are often self-rated by clinicians or designed for narrow patient groups, making them less useful for general hospitalized patients.<br /><br />The authors created an initial 20-item questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale. The questions were designed to reflect three compassion domains that patients can observe: recognizing suffering, empathy, and acting to alleviate suffering. Two domains from compassion theory—understanding the universality of suffering and tolerating uncomfortable feelings—were not included because they are not easily perceived by patients. After review by patients with healthcare experience, hospitalized adults completed the survey along with demographic questions.<br /><br />Using data from 106 participants, the researchers applied exploratory factor analysis and removed 8 weak or overlapping items, leaving a 12-item tool. This final version showed excellent reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94. Confirmatory factor analysis supported good construct validity and model fit. The tool produced an overall mean compassion score of 4.13 out of 5, with similar scores across the three domains: recognition of suffering (4.02), empathy (4.16), and acting to alleviate suffering (4.19). Compassion scores did not differ significantly by patient gender, clinician gender, race, age, insurance type, or marital status.<br /><br />Overall, the study provides evidence that this brief 12-question instrument is reliable, valid, and practical for assessing how hospitalized patients perceive clinician compassion.

Asset Subtitle

Rehan Qayyum

Meta Tag

Author List Haseeb Mauhmud, Nargiza Kurbanova, Rehan Qayyum, Sarah Hartigan, Sindhuja Koppu

Category Research

Concept Compassion

Concept Clinician Compassion

Concept Reliability

Concept Validity

Concept Quality Healthcare

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Eastern Virginia Medical School

Presenting Author Rehan Qayyum

Track Communication

Keywords

clinician compassion

hospitalized patients

patient perceptions

questionnaire validation

reliability

construct validity

exploratory factor analysis

confirmatory factor analysis

patient satisfaction

healthcare quality

Compassion

Clinician Compassion

Reliability

Validity

Quality Healthcare