Table 2

Barriers to Physician Compassion questionnaire

	Compassion in medicine is the desire to care, nurture, understand and relieve suffering and distress of the patient. How much do the following factors prevent or stop you from expressing compassion in your clinical work?
		Minimal					A great deal
1	Feeling burned out	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2	Having a limited time for consultations	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
3	Having a large case load of patients	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
4	Multiple interruptions during the consultations (eg, pages, texts)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
5	Physical environment is not conducive for a consultation (eg, noise)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
6	Culture of defensive medicine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
7	Prior difficult interactions with the patient's family	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	Sick of hearing the same problem again and again	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
9	Patient is difficult, rude or obnoxious	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
10	Feeling tired or fatigued	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
11	Clinical situation is very complex	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
12	Current treatments are not working	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
13	Having too many patients to see in a limited time	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
14	Many distractions during the consultation	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
15	Concern that patients may complain or sue	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
16	Interference from family members	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
17	Patient is not happy with you	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
18	Patient does not follow your recommendations	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
19	You are tired of practising medicine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
20	You are not sure if the patient will get better	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
21	Having too many non clinical duties (eg, administration, teaching)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
22	Too many people present during your consultations	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
23	Too much paperwork and documentation	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
24	Family of your patient is not happy with you	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
25	Patient has irrational beliefs about his condition and treatments	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
26	Patient is unkempt and malodorous	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
27	Your personal problems	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
28	Feeling impatient	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
29	Current treatments have caused unexpected adverse effects	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
30	Patient comes from a different sociocultural/ ethnic background	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
31	You are rushing to see the next patient	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
32	Patient is difficult to understand	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
33	Patient is in denial regarding their condition	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
34	What you are dealing with is beyond your comfort level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7