Antonio T Fernando1, Nathan S Consedine1. 1. Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Physicians are expected to be compassionate. However, most compassion research focuses on compassion fatigue--an outcome variable--rather than examining the specific factors that may interfere with compassion in a physician's practice. This report describes the development and early psychometric data for a self-report questionnaire assessing barriers to compassion among physicians. METHODS: In 2011, a pilot sample of 75 physicians helped to generate an initial list of barriers to compassion. A final 34 item Barriers to Physician Compassion (BPC) questionnaire was administered to 372 convenience-sampled physicians together with measures of demographics, practice-related variables, stress, locus of control and trait compassion. RESULTS: The barriers to physician compassion were not one-dimensional. Principal component analysis revealed the presence of four distinct, face-valid and discriminable factors--physician burnout/overload, external distractions, difficult patient/family and complex clinical situation. All barrier components had adequate internal reliabilities (>0.70) and meaningful patterns of convergent and divergent validity. CONCLUSIONS: Remaining compassionate in medical practice is difficult. With the newly developed BPC questionnaire, specific barriers to compassion can be assessed. These barriers illuminate potential targets for future self- and practice management, interventions and compassion training among physicians. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
OBJECTIVE: Physicians are expected to be compassionate. However, most compassion research focuses on compassion fatigue--an outcome variable--rather than examining the specific factors that may interfere with compassion in a physician's practice. This report describes the development and early psychometric data for a self-report questionnaire assessing barriers to compassion among physicians. METHODS: In 2011, a pilot sample of 75 physicians helped to generate an initial list of barriers to compassion. A final 34 item Barriers to Physician Compassion (BPC) questionnaire was administered to 372 convenience-sampled physicians together with measures of demographics, practice-related variables, stress, locus of control and trait compassion. RESULTS: The barriers to physician compassion were not one-dimensional. Principal component analysis revealed the presence of four distinct, face-valid and discriminable factors--physician burnout/overload, external distractions, difficult patient/family and complex clinical situation. All barrier components had adequate internal reliabilities (>0.70) and meaningful patterns of convergent and divergent validity. CONCLUSIONS: Remaining compassionate in medical practice is difficult. With the newly developed BPC questionnaire, specific barriers to compassion can be assessed. These barriers illuminate potential targets for future self- and practice management, interventions and compassion training among physicians. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
Entities:
Keywords:
Medical Education & Training; Medical Ethics; Social Medicine
Authors: Clair X Y Wang; Alina Pavlova; Antonio T Fernando; Nathan S Consedine Journal: Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract Date: 2022-04-07 Impact factor: 3.629
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Authors: Alina Pavlova; Clair X Y Wang; Anna L Boggiss; Anne O'Callaghan; Nathan S Consedine Journal: J Gen Intern Med Date: 2021-09-20 Impact factor: 5.128