1. Health care providers’ understanding of their patients’ feelings and the feelings of their patients’ families do not influence treatment outcomes.
2. Patients feel better when their health care provider understands their feelings.
3. It is difficult for a health care provider to view things from patients’ perspectives.
4. Understanding body language is as important as verbal communication in health care provider – patient relationships.
5. A health care provider’s sense of humour contributes to a better clinical outcome.
6. Because people are different‚ it is difficult to see things from patients’ perspectives.
7. Attention to patients’ emotions is not important in patient interview [interviewing].
8. Attentiveness to patients’ personal experiences does not influence treatment outcomes.
9. Health care providers should try to stand in their patients’ shoes when providing care to them.
10.Patients value a health care provider’s understanding of their feelings‚ which is therapeutic in its own right.
11.Patients’ illnesses can be cured only by targeted treatment; therefore‚ health care providers’ emotional ties with their patients do not have a significant influencein treatment outcomes.
12.Asking patients about what is happening in their personal lives is not helpful in understanding their physical complaints.
13.Health care providers should try to understand what is going on in their patients’ minds by paying attention to their non-verbal cues and body language.
14.I believe that emotion has no place in the treatment of medical illness.
15.Empathy is a therapeutic skill without which a health care provider’s success is limited.
16.Health care providers’ understanding of the emotional status of their patients‚ as well as that of their families is one important component of the health careprovider – patient relationship.
17.Health care providers should try to think like their patients in order to render better care.
18.Health care providers should not allow themselves to be influenced by strong personal bonds between their patients and their family members.
19.I do not enjoy reading non-medical literature or the arts.
20.I believe that empathy is an important factor in patients’ treatment.
Medical students (S-version)
Health Professions (HP-version)
Health Professions students (HPS-version)
“1-Strongly Disagree” To “7- Strongly Agree”
Hojat‚ M.‚ Mangione‚ S.‚ Nasca‚ T. J.‚ Cohen‚ M. J.‚ Gonnella‚ J. S.‚ Erdmann‚ J.B. … & Magee‚ M. (2001). The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy: development and preliminary psychometric data. Educational and Psychological Measurement‚ 61(2)‚ 349-365.
Hojat‚ M.‚ Gonnello‚ J. S.‚ Magione‚ S.‚ Nasca‚ T. J.‚ Velosk‚ J.‚ & Erdman‚ J. B. (2002). Empathy in medical students as related to academic performance. Clinical competence and Gender. Medical Education‚ 36: 522-527.
Kane‚ Gregory C.‚ Gotto‚ Joanne L.‚ Mangione‚ Salvatore.‚ West‚ Susan.‚ and Hojat‚ M. (2007). Jefferson Scale of Patient’s Perceptions of Physician Empathy: Preliminary Psychometric Data. Croat Med J‚ 48(1): 81–86.
Shariat‚ S. V.‚ Eshtad‚ E.‚ & Ansari‚ S. (2010). Empathy and its correlated in Iranian physician: A preliminary psychometric study of the Jeferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Medical Teacher‚ 32:417-421.
Fjortoft‚ Nancy.‚ Van Winkle‚ Lon J.‚ and Hojat‚ Mohammadreza. (2011). Measuring Empathy in Pharmacy Students. American journal of pharmaceutical education‚ 75 (6) Article 109.
Williams‚ Brett.‚ Brown‚ Ted.‚ Boyle‚ Malcolm.‚ and Dousek‚ Simon.‚ (2013). Psychometric testing of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Profession Students’ version with Australian paramedic students. Nursing and Health Sciences‚ 15: 45–50
Hojat‚ Mohammadreza .‚ Mangionea‚ Salvatore.‚ Kanea‚ Gregory C. & Gonnella‚ Joseph S. (2015). Relationships between scores of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Medical Teacher‚ 27; 625-628.
