Empathic communication between clinicians, patients, and care partners in palliative care encounters.

This was a secondary analysis of a pilot study of motivational interviewing coaching for palliative care clinicians. It included all encounters regardless of allocation, so it does not show the effect of the coaching. The identities of some clinicians and care partners were unknown, so specific roles such as physicians or spouses could not be examined. Most encounters were initial appointments, and the study did not compare new and follow-up encounters. Coding used audio transcripts only, so nonverbal communication was not assessed. The study had no measures of patient care needs, family conflict, or other reasons why more people might be present. Coders achieved fair reliability in a mock test and good reliability in a final test, not perfect agreement.

The authors reported no competing interests. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.

Do not read the links between number of people present and empathic communication as proof that adding clinicians or care partners improves care. The study observed recorded encounters and did not test an intervention or measure patient and care partner outcomes.