Measurement of physician empathy and patient's perception level on physician empathy: Case of special hospitals

This thesis aims to measure the doctors' emphaty and the patients' levels of perception about it in the surveys conducted to the private hospitals. The surveys were carried out with the doctors who worked in the surgical and internal medicine departments at the private hospitals, located in Silivri - Tuzla geographic region in the province of Istanbul and also with the patients who were cured there. The Patient's Perception scale of Physician Emphaty and Jefferson Scale of Physician Emphaty were applied to 70 physicians who worked at 35 private hospitals in Istanbul and to 420 patients who received health services from these physicians. In this study, various statistical analysis were done by SPSS 24.0 program. It is observed that the physicians who worked in the internal medicine had more empathy towards the patients. Also, it is determined that the physicians who were new to the medical profession or who were young, had higher empathy levels. The patients who received health services perceived that the surgeons had more empathy. Moreover, it is found that the empathy perception, developed by the physicians was higher towards the patients who were the health staff of good education. It is concluded that the more the doctors develop empathy with their patients, the more the patients will perceive it. It is thought that the physician's empathy with the patients will be increased and the patient will get better health services not only by improving the working conditions of the physicians but also preparing the educational plans to increase the health information of the patients.