BACKGROUND: Empathy and compassion are integral to person-centred care. Contemporary literature also provides evidence of the impact of empathic and compassionate care on patient outcomes, including enhanced satisfaction with care and improved patient safety. Notably, a previous scoping review identified only a limited number of studies exploring patients' experiences of empathic and compassionate care, underscoring the need for further research on patients' and their significant others' perspectives and experiences of empathic and compassionate healthcare encounters.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to explore patients' and their significant others' perceptions of empathic and compassionate healthcare encounters.

METHODS: This qualitative descriptive international survey recruited people who were willing to report on a personal experience with a healthcare professional that demonstrated positive or negative examples of empathic and/or compassionate care. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 84 participants from the Pacific region, the United States of America, and Europe reported encounters with nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, and multidisciplinary teams. Analysis revealed four overarching themes: (1) Verbal and non-verbal communication; (2) Clinician attitudes and attributes; (3) The power of small, thoughtful gestures; and (4) Enduring impact of empathic care.

CONCLUSIONS: To promote empathic and compassionate care, there needs to be a holistic focus on practitioner communication across the bio-psycho-social-spiritual domains. When these elements are included in interactions with patients and their significant others, healthcare providers can have a powerful and long-lasting impact on people's experiences and health outcomes.