Cultivating ethnocultural empathy in healthcare: The effects of multilingualism and cross-cultural experiences

Introduction: Empathy is a multidimensional construct essential to effective healthcare delivery, encompassing general, clinical, and ethnocultural components. While the importance of empathy in clinical settings is well-established, limited research has examined how these distinct dimensions interrelate and what sociodemographic factors may influence them. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among general, clinical, and ethnocultural empathy in healthcare professionals in Greece, and to identify sociodemographic predictors of higher empathy levels. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during the first quarter of 2022, involving a convenience sample of 106 healthcare professionals (medical and nursing staff) from public hospitals across Greece. Participants completed an electronic questionnaire distributed via professional Facebook groups. The instrument included the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ), the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professional Version (JSE-HP), the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE), and a sociodemographic survey. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0, employing descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise linear regression. Results: Significant positive correlations were observed among general, clinical, and ethnocultural empathy scores. Higher levels of education, foreign language proficiency, and prior intercultural experiences (such as studying or living abroad) emerged as significant predictors of increased empathy across all three domains. Discussion: The findings support the interconnected nature of empathy types and suggest that intercultural exposure may enhance empathic capacity, echoing Allport’s contact hypothesis. These insights have implications for healthcare education, highlighting the need to integrate ethnocultural empathy training to foster inclusivity and improve patient-centered care in increasingly diverse clinical environments.