Athletes’ Perception of Athletic Trainer Empathy: How Important Is It?
in Journal of Sport RehabilitationClick name to view affiliation
Context: Health care practitioners face increasing expectations to provide patient-centered care. Communication skills, specifically empathy, are critical in the provision of patient-centered care. Past work correlates empathy with improved patient satisfaction, compliance, and treatment outcomes. In particular, a predictive relationship exists between clients’ ratings of their clinician’s empathy and treatment outcomes. There is a dearth of studies examining empathy using qualitative methodology and factors of empathy in athletic training. Objective: To gain an understanding of athletes’ perceptions of empathy in the patient–clinician relationship. Design: Qualitative interviews were completed using grounded-theory techniques. Setting: A quiet office. Participants: A typical, purposeful sample of 15 college-age Division I student-athletes (8 female, 7 male; 19.3 ± 1.2 y) from a variety of sports (football, wrestling, volleyball, baseball, etc) participated. Data Collection and Analysis: Researchers utilized an interview protocol designed to understand the factors of empathy related to athletic training. The interview protocol established a concept of empathy to help facilitate discussion of ideas. Data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for themes and patterns using grounded-theory techniques. Trustworthiness of the data was ensured using an external auditor, member checks, and methods triangulation. Results: Five themes described empathy: advocacy, communication, approachability, access, and competence. Advocacy was described as the athletic trainer (AT) representing the patient. Communication was the ability to listen reflectively; approachability emerged as the comfort and personal connection the patient felt with the AT. Access and technical competence were bridges required for the development of empathy. Conclusions: Providing patient-centered care facilitated by developing good patient–clinician relationships is critical in enabling the best treatment outcomes. ATs portray empathy through advocacy, communication, and approachability. Empathy improves the patient–clinician relationship and is critical for patient-centered care delivered by ATs.
The authors are with the Dept of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Science and the Dept of Public Health, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND.
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