Clinical empathy

Clinical empathy is expressed as the skill of understanding what a patient says and feels, and effectively communicating this understanding to the patient. The opposite of clinical empathy is clinical detachment. Detached concern, or clinical detachment, is the ability to distance oneself from the patient in order to serve the patient from an objective standpoint. For physicians to maximize their role as providers, a balance must be developed between clinical detachment and clinical empathy.

In 2001, an instrument was created to measure a physician's empathy towards each patient. This tool is called the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. The 20-item questionnaire was originally developed for administration to medical students and physicians but has extended to dentistry and nursing because it is easy to interpret, administer, and analyze.

From a student's first year to their fourth year in medical school, empathy scores on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (S-version) decrease. Both gender and specialty choice affect empathy scores, favoring women and primary care specialties.