Section of Psychology, Health & Technology

What is considered compassionate care? A cross-sectional study in a hospital setting

Type of assignment:                     MA (25-35 EC)

Internal or external?:                    Internal/external: Internal supervision with external partner

Maximum number of students:   

Individual collecting of data?        Yes

Type of research:                         Cross-sectional (quantitative and qualitative)

Description of the assignment:
Medicine traditionally encompasses consoling, alleviating and curing, yet the present emphasis is primarily on curing. With the rise of palliative care and the demand of health care increasingly surpassing the supply, more attention is needed for the roles of consolation and alleviation. Compassion, or the recognition and alleviation of suffering, is an important value in health care, and offers a scientific lens to study what is needed to recognize and (be motivated to) alleviate suffering. Compassion may encompass consoling and showing empathy by a health professional in some situations, and offering a technological tool or curative solution (such as an operation) in others. In order to improve future recognition, measurement and allocated resources for compassion in health care, it is first needed to understand what is currently perceived as compassionate care. To that end, this study will map what aspects of the care process are experienced as compassionate by health care professionals and (caregivers of) patients.

At the Ear Nose Throat (ENT) center of the MST hospital in Enschede, health professionals and (caregivers) of (pediatric) outpatients will complete questionnaires about their experience of giving or receiving compassion, how technology supports compassion and which aspects of the care process are considered as compassionate care. The questionnaire battery will consist of at least 2 validated questionnaires and 1 to-be-developed study-specific item list and 1-3 open questions. Data collection will commence via our partner ENT specialist, who will recruit colleagues and (caregivers of) outpatients. An example research question could be: ‘What aspects of the care process (interactions, technologies, treatments) are considered compassionate, and how does this differ between the professional (giver) and patient (receiver)?’

Who are we looking for?

A proactive student with an interest in compassion and the hospital context. Proficiency in Dutch is needed to work with Dutch questionnaires and qualitative data.

What are we offering? A chance to gain experience with cross-sectional research in an applied hospital setting, with established connections for data collection.

More information?: dr. Judith Austin:  j.austin@utwente.nl and prof. Matthijs Noordzij:  m.l.noordzij@utwente.nl

Supervisors: dr. Judith Austin and prof. Matthijs Noordzij