Conveying empathy to hospice family caregivers: team responses to caregiver empathic communication.

Objective: The goal of this study was to explore empathic communication opportunities presented by family caregivers and responses from interdisciplinary hospice team members.
Methods: Empathic opportunities and hospice team responses were analyzed from bi-weekly web-based videoconferences between family caregivers and hospice teams. The authors coded the data using the Empathic Communication Coding System (ECCS) and identified themes within and among the coded data.
Results: Data analysis identified 270 empathic opportunity-team response sequences. Caregivers expressed statements of emotion and decline most frequently. Two-thirds of the hospice team responses were implicit acknowledgements of caregiver statements and only one-third of the team responses were explicit recognitions of caregiver empathic opportunities.
Conclusion: Although hospice team members frequently express emotional concerns with family caregivers during one-on-one visits, there is a need for more empathic communication during team meetings that involve caregivers.
Practice Implications: Hospice clinicians should devote more time to discussing emotional issues with patients and their families to enhance patient-centered hospice care. Further consideration should be given to training clinicians to empathize with patients and family caregivers.
(Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)