Family Medicine Publications
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
Summer 8-15-2024
Abstract
The Virtual Compassionate Primary Care Scale (VCPC) was developed as part of a larger study whose aim was to establish specific actions and activities that should be included within virtual primary care encounters to ensure compassionate care. We pilot tested patient and family physician 9-item versions of the VCPC to assess the degree of compassion within patient-family physician virtual encounters.
The pilot testing took place within individual interviews with patients and family physicians (not patient-family physician dyads) where we asked them to reflect on a recent specific encounter receiving [for patients] or providing [for family physicians] virtual care. Seventeen patients and 10 family physicians competed questionnaires.
We calculated the VCPC score by taking the mean from the responses to each of the nine items (1 ‘completely’; 2 ‘somewhat’; 3 ‘a little’; and 4 ‘not at all’). Lower scores reflect more compassionate encounters. Patients had a mean VCPC score of 1.46 (SD 0.67; median 1.11) out of a possible 4. Family physicians had a lower mean VCPC score of 1.26 (SD 0.20; median 1.22). The Cronbach alpha score of reliability for the VCPC patient scale was 0.94 and 0.47 for family physician scale.
The VCPC was acceptable to participants and, during the course of administering, participants often offered additional reflections on the encounter. We believe the VCPC has potential to be used as a reflective learning tool for health care learners and for continuing professional development.
