Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nutr Diet. 2020 Apr;77(2):231-239. doi: 10.1111/1747-0080.12562. Epub 2019 Jun 14.
Empathy is an essential aspect in the delivery of quality nutrition care and promoting better outcomes in patients. With an increased emphasis of patient-centred care in dietetic practice, empathy should underpin the construct of the curriculum in dietetic education. The present study investigated the empathy level of dietetic interns through self-reporting measures and patients' perception.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 57 dietetic interns and 99 patients from primary and tertiary health care settings. The dietetic interns completed the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) while the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure was self-administered by patients. Socio-demographic information of participants was collected.
The dietetic interns' mean (standard deviation [SD]) TEQ scores were 46.90 ± 5.28 and 47.78 ± 5.34 in primary and tertiary care, respectively. CARE measure scores rated by patients in the primary care were 38.61 ± 8.38 and for tertiary setting, the scores were slightly higher (39.47 ± 7.65). The settings, gender, ethnicity and period of internship did not affect dietetic interns' empathy level. In primary care, CARE scores were significantly different between patients' age grouping (P = 0.007).
Findings from the present study showed that patients' age significantly affected their perception of dietetic interns' empathy in primary health care. These preliminary findings could facilitate an understanding of the level of empathy amongst interns for consideration in the future design of dietetic training.
同理心是提供优质营养护理和促进患者更好结果的重要方面。随着患者为中心的护理在饮食实践中的重视程度不断提高，同理心应该成为饮食教育课程结构的基础。本研究通过自我报告措施和患者感知来调查实习营养师的同理心水平。
这项横断面研究共纳入了来自初级和三级保健机构的 57 名实习营养师和 99 名患者。实习营养师完成了多伦多同理心问卷（TEQ），而患者则自行完成了咨询和关系同理心（CARE）量表。收集了参与者的社会人口统计学信息。
实习营养师的平均（标准差 [SD]）TEQ 分数分别为初级保健和三级保健中的 46.90±5.28 和 47.78±5.34。初级保健中患者评定的 CARE 量表得分分别为 38.61±8.38，而在三级保健中，得分略高（39.47±7.65）。实习营养师的同理心水平不受环境、性别、种族和实习时间的影响。在初级保健中，患者年龄分组之间的 CARE 评分存在显著差异（P = 0.007）。
本研究结果表明，患者的年龄会显著影响他们对初级保健实习营养师同理心的感知。这些初步发现有助于了解实习生同理心的水平，为未来的饮食培训设计提供参考。
