Relationships Between Nurse‐Expressed Empathy, Patient‐Perceived Empathy and Patient Distress

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Abstract
It is increasingly important that nursing care be associated with measurable patient outcomes. A correlational study examined relationships between nurse‐expressed empathy and two patient outcomes: patient perceived empathy and patient distress. Subjects (N = 140) were randomly selected from RNs and patients on medical and surgical units in two urban, acute care hospitals. Nurse‐subjects (N = 70) completed two measures of nurse‐expressed empathy: the Behavioral Test of Interpersonal Skills and the Staff‐Patient Interaction Response Scale. Patient‐subjects (N = 70) completed the Profile of Mood States, the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, and the Barrett‐Lennard Relationship Inventory. Findings indicated a negative relationship (r =−.71, p<.001) between a set of empathy variables and a set of patient distress variables and a positive relationship between nurse‐expressed and patient perceived empathy (r=37 −.47,p<.05). This study is one of the first to link behavioral measures of nurse empathy to patient outcomes