A comparison of four empathy instruments in simulated patient-medical student interactions.

Prior investigations of empathy in medicine have used several available instruments for assessment, including a scale developed by Hornblow, Hogan's empathy scale, the Carkhuff-Truax empathic understanding scale, and the Barrett-Lennard relationship inventory. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to investigate the intercorrelations of the scores on these four instruments when used in a medical student-simulated patient interaction. The results showed that measures of empathy based on observed behavior of the students were highly intercorrelated but that empathy self-assessed by the students themselves as having that trait did not correlate significantly with any of the behavior-based measures. No significant effect on these findings was attributable to the timing of the instrument administration, to the students' interpersonal skills training or experience in taking histories and performing physical examinations, or to the sex of the students and the observers.

A computerized dietary order entry system.

The Dietary Order Entry System is a computerized system which instantaneously communicates orders/messages from the patient care units to the floor diet offices. The system also produces up-to-date management reports such as diet lists and diet census at pre-determined times and on demand. Dietary and nursing personnel believe it is an extremely beneficial system in terms of both increased accuracy of data and time savings in transmission of information. We believe that improved patient care will result from this improved method of diet ordering.