Abstract

HERNANDEZ-VELA, Sergio  and  URREGO-MENDOZA, Diana Zulima. Characterising empathy levels in a group of doctors practising alternative medicine in Bogotá. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2014, vol.62, n.3, pp.1-24. ISSN 0120-0011.  https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v62n3.43927.

Background. Empathy is essential in the doctor-patient relationship for ensuring good clinical practice, as this emphasises the ability to take another person's place and thus understand a patient's adversity and act accordingly. Such ability/skill forms part of the epistemological foundations supporting the different areas of emphasis regarding alternative medicine. Objective. Characterising the level of empathy of doctors practising alternative medicine regarding homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, neural therapy and osteopathy. Materials and methods. A descriptive correlational study was carried out between July and January 2013 which involved doctors practising alternative medicine completing a 20 item self-report form adapted to this specific population: i.e. the Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale (JPES). Categorisation and empathy scores were then correlated with sociodemographic variables, expressing the results as frequencies and means, along with their respective confidence intervals. Results. The overall empathy score for doctors practising alternative medicine who participated in the study averaged 124.81 (94-140 range, 127 median, 9.93 SD); this score was observed most frequently in females, having no statistically significant difference regarding the male population. Conclusions. The levels of empathy for doctors trained in alternative medicine were similar to those recorded by doctors specialising in psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine and paediatrics who had recorded the best standards for empathic physician-patient relationships.

Keywords : Empathy; Complementary Therapies; Physicians.

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