MENOCOP

This project sought to develop a questionnaire on empathy that would assist employers in older peoples’ care to understand more about the empathy level of applicants for nursing and other care worker roles in their organisations. Older peoples’ care workers, including nurses and other workers, and older care residents were surveyed about their perceptions of empathy in a large chain of residential older persons’ care homes. Questions developed were generally influenced from empathy questionnaires which did not have a specific focus on empathy in carers of older people. Questions were formed on a basis of three elements of empathy – cognitive, affective and social. A total of 151 care workers and residents from seven older people care homes completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire was found to be reliable and formed an acceptable basis for the measurement of empathy within an older peoples’ care context.