Table 4.
Standardized factor loadings for attitudes toward empathy in patient care.
| Item | Hojat [1]a | Current studyb | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | F2 | F3 | F1 | F2 | F3 | |
| 2 Patients feel better when their nurses understand their feelings | .458 | .512 | ||||
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| 4 Understanding body language is as important as verbal communication in nurse-patient relationships | .480 | .424 | ||||
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| 5 A nurses's sense of humor contributes to a better clinical outcome | .443 | |||||
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| 9 Nurses should try to stand in their patients' shoes when providing care to them | .515 | .698 | ||||
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| 10 Patients value a nurse's understanding of their feelings which is therapeutic in its own right | .615 | .630 | ||||
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| 13 Nurses should try to understand what is going on in their patients' minds by paying attention to their nonverbal cues and body language | .510 | .509 | ||||
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| 15 Empathy is a therapeutic skill without which the nurse's success is limited | .421 | .427 | ||||
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| 16. Nurses' understanding of the emotional status of their patients, as well as that of their families is one important component of the nurse-patient relationship | .641 | .547 | ||||
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| 17 Nurses should try to think like their patients in order to render better care | .611 | |||||
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| 20 I believe that empathy is an important therapeutic factor in medical treatment | .534 | .403 | ||||
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| 19x I do not enjoy reading nonmedical literature or the arts (reversed) | ||||||
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| 18x Nurses should not allow themselves to be influenced by strong personal bonds between their patients and their family members (reversed) | .542 | |||||
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| 14x I believe that emotion has no place in the treatment of medical illness (reversed) | .607 | .650 | ||||
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| 12x Asking patients about what is happening in their personal lives is not helpful in understanding their physical complaints (reversed) | .500 | .590 | ||||
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| 11x Patients' illnesses can be cured only by medical or surgical treatment; therefore, nurses' emotional ties with their patients do not have a significant influence in medical or surgical treatment (reversed) | .596 | .641 | ||||
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| 8x Attentiveness to patients' personal experiences does not influence treatment outcomes (reversed) | .604 | .608 | ||||
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| 7x Attention to patients' emotions is not important in history taking (reversed) | .526 | .665 | ||||
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| 1x Nurses' understanding of their patients' feelings and the feelings of their patients' families does not influence medical or surgical treatment | .446 | .444 | ||||
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| 6x Because people are different, it is difficult to see things from patients' perspectives (reversed) | .711 | .759 | ||||
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| 3x It is difficult for a nurse to view things from patients' perspectives (reversed) | .709 | .722 | ||||
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| Eigenvalue | 4.2 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 3.40 | 2.63 | 1.69 |
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| % of variance | 21% | 8% | 7% | 17.0% | 13.1% | 8.4% |
*Printed with express permission from Dr. M. Hojat.
a: F1 = Perspective Taking, F2 = Compassionate Care, F3 = Standing in the Patient's Shoes.
b: F1 = Emotional Engagement/Compassionate Care, F2 = Perspective Taking, F3 = Standing in the Patient's Shoes.