Hanks, Kristine An Examination of the Relationship Between Patient Satisfaction Ratings, Demographics, and Components of Empathy in Nursing Staff. 2024. Radford University, Doctoral Capstone Project. Radford University Scholars' Repository.
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Abstract
The healthcare system in the United States (U.S.) has been increasingly driven to provide high-quality, patient-centered care, as seen by federally driven initiatives. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, being a major development by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) incentivizes hospital systems in the United States to deliver high-quality acute care by linking reimbursement to HCAHPS survey patient satisfaction rankings, known as the value-based payment program. It is crucial for healthcare institutions to effectively improve their patient satisfaction ratings, which significantly affect their financial health. Empathy in healthcare providers has been shown to positively influence communication, perceived support, quality care, trust, and satisfaction. Despite the recognized importance of empathy, studies correlating empathetic components directly to reimbursement dependent patient satisfaction surveys are limited. Acute rehabilitation hospitals, which focus on the recovery of patients with serious conditions and rely heavily on Medicare reimbursement, offer a unique environment to examine the relationship between empathy and patient satisfaction. By using acute rehabilitation hospitals to conduct research on empathy in nursing, this study aimed to generate insights that can be generalized to acute inpatient hospitals. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the components of empathy in nursing staff and patient satisfaction in acute rehabilitation hospitals. This study used a validated empathy assessment tool to measure the components of empathy of nursing staff and compared these areas with a patient satisfaction survey question similar to the global questions used in the HCAHPS survey. By utilizing acute rehabilitation hospitals within the same healthcare company, it controls organizational differences, patient/nursing survey timeframes and ensures consistency in the care environment. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted across four hospitals with a sample of 132 nursing staff participants. Nursing staff was classified into two groups based on the hospitals’ patient satisfaction rating (greater than 8/10 and less than 5/10). Demographic data included age, gender, race, profession, and employment status. Empathy components were measured using scales for Perspective Taking, Compassionate Care, and Walking in Patient Shoes, with reliability confirmed via Cronbach’s alpha, and two-tailed independent samples t-test, Chi-square tests of independence, and ANOVA were used to analyze differences in empathy scores between groups. Results: The overall Empathy scale demonstrated acceptable reliability (α = .73), although the subscales ranged from questionable to acceptable. The sample was diverse in terms of age, gender, and race, with the majority being female (91.67%) and Black or African American (43.18%). Registered nurses constituted 52.27% of the sample. Empathy and its components did not show significant differences between top patient satisfaction hospitals and bottom-ranked hospitals. However, there was a significant difference in empathy and its components between White and Black or African American participants, younger vs. older nurses, and among nursing degree levels. White participants scored higher in overall empathy (M = 118.39, SD = 11.39) and Compassionate Care (M = 45.91, SD = 6.16) compared to Black or African American participants (M = 112.26, SD = 13.73; M = 41.02, SD = 8.62, respectively). Nurses under 30 years old had higher overall empathy scores (M = 123.76, SD = 5.98) compared to those 30 years and older (M = 114.28, SD = 12.53). Similarly, younger nurses scored higher in Perspective Taking (cognitive empathy) (M = 64.88, SD = 3.89) versus older nurses (M = 59.66, SD = 6.44). Conclusions: The findings suggest that while demographic factors such as race, level of education in the nursing field, and age may influence certain aspects of empathy, the overall relationship between empathy components and patient satisfaction ratings is complex. Future research should explore the relationship between patient satisfaction ratings and specific nursing staff providing care, aligning patient responses closer with the individual giving the care.
| Item Type: | Doctoral Capstone Project |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) |
| Divisions: | Radford University > Waldron College of Health and Human Services > Health Sciences Program |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Dec 2024 18:07 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2024 18:07 |
| URI: | http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/1138 |
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