Exploring Empathy In A Dentist-Patient Relationship. Conclusions From Qualitative Exploratory Research Of Practicing Dentists.

Objective: This study explored the factors influencing the development of empathy in a dentist-patient relationship. Design: An exploratory qualitative study. Place and duration of the study: Khyber Medical University KPK, Pakistan October 2019 to April 2020.was conducted during 2019-2020. Methodology: This exploratory qualitative study was conducted during 2019-2020. It was conducted on 12 dental surgeons, recruited from four major dental clinical specialties. A purposive sampling technique was used. In -depth interviews were conducted through a semi-structured format. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed, using the thematic analysis framework. Results: Three themes were extracted from the data. 1) Institutionalization of empathy 2) Barriers in the path of empathetic attitude and 3) Cultivating a Culture of empathy for better health care provision. The participants of the study observed tha t the development of empathy in a dentist-patient relationship includes a wide range of factors, ranging from curricular, personal, social, organizational, and cultural. These factors elaborate that empathy is a multidimensional phenomenon with roots deeply entrenched in professional and personal domains. Conclusion: Various factors are involved in developing an empathetic relationship between a dentist and a patient. The content about empathy in our present dental curriculum is very deficient. Contextual academic workload and time constraints affect the execution of empathy. However, empathy is a teachable attribute, hence the factors hampering empathy can be addressed, modified, and re-employed to enhance empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]