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Empathy in Clinical Practice: How Individual Dispositions, Gender, and Experience Moderate Empathic Concern, Burnout, and Emotional Distress in Physicians

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  • Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht
  • Jean Decety

Abstract

To better understand clinical empathy and what factors can undermine its experience and outcome in care-giving settings, a large-scale study was conducted with 7,584 board certified practicing physicians. Online validated instruments assessing different aspects of empathy, distress, burnout, altruistic behavior, emotional awareness, and well-being were used. Compassion satisfaction was strongly associated with empathic concern, perspective taking and altruism, while compassion fatigue (burnout and secondary traumatic stress) was more closely related to personal distress and alexithymia. Gender had a highly selective effect on empathic concern, with women displaying higher values, which led to a wide array of negative and devalued feelings. Years of experience did not influence dispositional measures per se after controlling for the effect of age and gender. Participants who experienced compassion fatigue with little to no compassion satisfaction showed the highest scores on personal distress and alexithymia as well as the strongest indicators of compassion fatigue. Physicians who have difficulty regulating their negative arousal and describing and identifying emotions seem to be more prone to emotional exhaustion, detachment, and a low sense of accomplishment. On the contrary, the ability to engage in self-other awareness and regulate one’s emotions and the tendency to help others, seem to contribute to the sense of compassion that comes from assisting patients in clinical practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht & Jean Decety, 2013. "Empathy in Clinical Practice: How Individual Dispositions, Gender, and Experience Moderate Empathic Concern, Burnout, and Emotional Distress in Physicians," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0061526
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061526
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hodges, Sara D. & Klein, Kristi J. K., 2001. "Regulating the costs of empathy: the price of being human," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 437-452.
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    1. Yung Kai Lin & Der-Yuan Chen & Blossom Yen-Ju Lin, 2017. "Determinants and effects of medical students’ core self-evaluation tendencies on clinical competence and workplace well-being in clerkship," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-12, November.
    2. Katherine A. DeCelles & Michel Anteby, 2020. "Compassion in the Clink: When and How Human Services Workers Overcome Barriers to Care," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 1408-1431, November.
    3. Siedine K. Coetzee & Heather K.S. Laschinger, 2018. "Toward a comprehensive, theoretical model of compassion fatigue: An integrative literature review," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 4-15, March.
    4. Ye-Seul Lee & Hyun-Seo Song & Hackjin Kim & Younbyoung Chae, 2019. "Altruistic decisions are influenced by the allocation of monetary incentives in a pain-sharing game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Alberto Dionigi & Giulia Casu & Paola Gremigni, 2020. "Associations of Self-Efficacy, Optimism, and Empathy with Psychological Health in Healthcare Volunteers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-13, August.
    6. Giovanna Vicarelli, 2016. "Stress, burnout e insoddisfazione dei medici: un campo di indagine aperto," PRISMA Economia - Societ? - Lavoro, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 9-20.
    7. Bettina Lampert & Christine Unterrainer & Christian Thomas Seubert, 2019. "Exhausted through client interaction—Detached concern profiles as an emotional resource over time?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, May.
    8. Daniel Román-Sánchez & Juan Carlos Paramio-Cuevas & Olga Paloma-Castro & José Luis Palazón-Fernández & Isabel Lepiani-Díaz & José Manuel de la Fuente Rodríguez & María Reyes López-Millán, 2022. "Empathy, Burnout, and Attitudes towards Mental Illness among Spanish Mental Health Nurses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-13, January.

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