Measuring physicians' humanistic attitudes, values, and behaviors

Abstract

This paper describes the reliability and validity of 10 easily administered and scored self-report measures of physicians' humanistic attitudes, values, and behaviors. This research also provides evidence that evaluations of physicians' humanistic behavior made by their outpatients, and non-physician staff with whom they worked, and the faculty physicians supervising them on inpatient ward rotations were positively and significantly correlated with one another. The potential usefulness of a multi-modal approach in evaluating humanistic physician attributes in which self-report measures are combined with direct feedback from all of those who interact with physicians is discussed.