Empathy: A Core Aspect of Human Being

A Step Closer!

Empathy is the main ingredient of humane, compassionate care. It is defined as the act of correctly acknowledging the emotional state of another without experiencing that state oneself.

These are some tips to help you show empathy to your patients in order to achieve a more symmetrical communication with a higher degree of mutuality.

• Active listening means putting yourself in the other person’s position as they describe it. Think about what they must be feeling, how you would feel if you were in their position. 
• When it’s your turn to talk, repeat back what you think the other person meant or how they might feel.
• Recognize the importance of their feelings and don’t invalidate them.
• Show them care and concern by asking questions about how they feel.
• Take a dive, and look your patients in the eye. Pause between questions if you’re charting or taking notes, and take time to make eye contact.
• When used with awareness, nonverbal communication is a powerful way to build rapport and strengthen relationships.
• Don’t run ahead of the conversation, let your patients express their feelings freely without jumping to the end point of the conversation.
• Strive to be nonjudgmental. This affirms the dignity of your patients and helps them have a voice in their healthcare.
• Last but not least, give emotional support. This means, give them your trust and affirmation. Encourage them. Let them know that no matter what happens, you have their back.  

Sometimes, all people are looking for is empathy and support. That in this big world of strangers, filled with fear and uncertainty, that there is someone here to support them, without judgment or bias.

Advancing Humanism

Empathy extends far beyond a patient’s medical history, signs, and symptoms. It is more than a clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Patient’s empathy encompasses a connection and an understanding that includes the mind, body, and soul.

Benefits of patient’s empathy:

• It builds the patient’s trust, which increases his willingness to disclose accurate and relevant information about him and improves compliance and engagement in treatment.
• It lowers anxiety and distress.
• It improves clinical outcomes: an empathic relationship between physicians and their patients can increase immune function, shorten post-surgery hospital stays, control blood sugar, decrease asthma attacks and even shorten the duration of colds.
• It leads to better adherence to medications.
• It decreases malpractice cases:  physician’s ability to establish rapport, meet patient expectations and communicate effectively factor into a patient’s decision not to file a lawsuit.
• It increases patient’s satisfaction.

Physicians may avoid empathy due to the mistaken belief that it will negatively affect their practice of medicine.

False beliefs:

• Empathy is time-consuming: false! empathy can actually save time during clinical encounters by prompting more accurate and efficient patient reporting of history and symptoms. Patients are often satisfied with shorter visits.
• Empathy causes burnouts: it is more like the opposite! Detachment might protect physicians from burnout but too much detachment and objectivity can cause burnouts. Avoiding emotional connections can become exhausting and removes the satisfaction of being a healer. There must be a balance between empathy and detachment.
• Empathy can’t be learned: research indicates that empathic communication is a teachable and learnable skill.
• Empathy requires superhuman efforts: in fact, avoiding empathy takes more time and energy than practicing it. Empathy is a core aspect of human nature.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513642/
https://personalexcellence.co/blog/empathy/
https://www.ameritech.edu/blog/empathy-when-providing-care/
https://blog.medicalgps.com/the-importance-of-empathy-in-healthcare/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529296/
https://www.norcal-group.com/library/empathy-benefits-both-physicians-and-patients-case-studies-and-best-practices