Greater professional empathy leads to higher agreement about decisions made in the consultation

Abstract Objective To examine the relationship between professional expression of empathy and agreement about decisions made in the consultation. Methods Consultations between 86 individuals with diabetes and four dieticians were audio-recorded. Immediately following consultations patients and dieticians independently reported decisions made in a booklet. Audio-recordings were coded directly for empathy using an amended version of the empathic communication coding system (ECCS). Results Empathy correlated significantly with patient and professional agreement about decisions made in the consultation ( τ =.283, p =.0005). Multiple regression analysis indicates that for each dietician the greater the empathy the higher the level of agreement about decisions ( p p =.008). Conclusion Results support the hypothesis that greater professional empathy will result in greater agreement about decisions made in consultations. Practice implications Findings have implications for empathy training and provide guidance on the communication skills needed to support expression of empathy. Patient and professional agreement about decisions made provides a simple marker of effectiveness and highlights the importance of empathy as a seminal component of professional communication skills during a patient consultation.