Empathy In The Healthcare Industry

The importance of empathy in any helping profession, medical or social, cannot be overstated. The workers that exemplified it in their practice did the best that they could with their limited resources.

Patients seek care and treatment in hopes of receiving confidential, unbiased, honest, and respectful treatment. They also expect that care providers maintain their personal values and beliefs related to their care. As healthcare

Teaching hospitals are meant to train future professionals while ensuring that they provide the uppermost care for their patients. However, what some teaching hospitals fail to maintain is a strong and positive doctor-patient relationship. You would think that television shows and films

Oftentimes, as patients it is easier to analyze the healthcare setting from a critical perspective rather than a hopeful perspective. Oftentimes, as patients our encounters in healthcare settings are high stress to begin with (e.g. diagnosis, disease, caretaking). To my surprise, Nicole informed of several communication projects that she underwent and continues to participate in at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Nicole informed me that she did undergo a mandatory general seminar on the basics of professionalism and therapeutic relationships with families upon being hired. Since then, Nicole has been required to take more formal classes that have developed as an aim of standardizing certain interactions with families. Some examples include: standard way to answer the phone, walking with someone who is lost to their destination rather than just giving directions. Nicole stated “it has really become more customer service focused.”

- Empathy: (00:26) When the client stated that he thought he was receiving his money today Katie could have said "I'm sorry, lets take a look at your account and check on that for you. Can you provide me with your loan/phone number?"

Empathy is defined as the ability to communicate an understanding of a client’s feelings, and is a crucial component of the helping relationship (Boggs. 2011, p.106). Empathy is an essential concept to nursing practice as it allows the nurse to gain perspective in order to provide appropriate actions and interventions significant to that patient’s individual experience. In Tilda Shalof’s “A Nurses’ Story”, the author, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit (ICU), struggles with a particularly difficult patient case and must reflect upon her own values and subsequent judgments in order to provide adequate nursing care.

Patients seek medical attention for preventative measures, as well as, diagnostic measures. Patients must have a trusting rapport with their collaborative medical team, as the nurses and the doctors are the people who they trust their lives with. Patients do not always present to hospitals, urgent cares, walk-in clinics, or even doctor’s offices only when they are sick; patients visit to ensure their good health will continue, treatment regimens are of benefit, changes that may be needed in regimen. When someone thinks of a patient they may think of some of these characteristics: illness, disease, hospital, medications, health, and prevention.

Nurses are always the ones being close to the patient the most in any clinical settings. Clinical skills are crucial in providing the best treatment and health care but not enough to make one a good nurse. Beside clinical skills, I believe empathy also play a major role in nursing practice. According to Potter and Perry (2013), “empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, accurately perceive feelings, and communicate this understanding to other” (p. 320). To understand the definition of empathy, we have to put ourselves in patient’s situation and try to understand what they are going through. Not only we, as nurses, provide physical care to patients but we also go beyond our duty to support and improve their emotional

Through the interactions I have in the healthcare setting, I notice the physicians and other healthcare members are always alert and composed regardless of the situation. I believe paying attention to details is an innate feature, but being observant is a quality I am obtaining throughout my interactions with peers and patients. As I volunteer in The James Cancer Hospital, I realize the importance of being attentive; every patient and visitor I meet, has questions and worries that need to be answered and reassured. Recently, I escorted an elderly visitor to her husband in a post-operating room. On our way, I tried to converse with the visitor about the weather, but she was only giving me short answers. The thing that troubled me was the uneasiness in her voice, so I continued to make small talks about the amenities and resources within the hospital. In one of her responses, she mentioned being in the waiting area for longer than expected. I quick understood her concerns; since most visitors I encountered in this department waited long hours for their love ones, they might feel agitated and anxious when receiving news about the surgery. Although I had no knowledge of the surgery duration, I was able to put her at ease by letting her know that the hospital would have communicated with her about updates from the surgery. I wanted to reassured the visitor; thus before I left the patient room, I described the concern of patient’s wife to the nurse so that the care team can address the issue further.

At a hospital, the somberness of familial worry lingers no matter how reassuring the medical faculty is. Precision of detail is simply a prerequisite in interaction with patients. Rightfully so, as the very lives and health of these individuals rest in

Throughout the course of a year, I had a first hand experience of patients and the inner workings of a hospital. As a courier, each day was composed of handling medication, blood, food, and interacting with patients. A visit to the hospital is not a patients first choice by any means, and this was expressed through multiple emotions such as gratitude towards the staff, irritation due to their situation, or the occasional felon who would express their feelings through the use of expressive language. Their interactions provided an alternate perspective, as the staff would handle each situation with a smile on their faces no matter the circumstance. I truly came to understand the importance of communication between a physician, their staff, and

The capacity for empathy allows us to better understand others and to be easier to 'read' their energy. However, this is a feature that can be harmful, so it is important to know how not to be subject to other people's emotions and energies.

I selected empathy because Mr. Stokes seems to be missing this skill. He does not seem to consider Mrs. Martin needs or feelings because he already stated that he is a loner and did not need the extra help. Although, when gaining empathy, Mr. Stokes will begin to consider how his actions could effect Mrs. Martin or any other staff member he may work with. He will also gain the skills of becoming an active listener by listening to the information and getting a clear picture, affirming, acknowledging, exploring the problem, and lastly responding to the problem. Thus, with these steps, Mr. Stokes will be able to address the problems with Mrs. Martin, and find a solution that works best for them both. Although, Mr. Stokes will need to first change

The world is evolving in many different ways especially in the healthcare industries. Every healthcare facility has adopted many ways to help their patients and teach their healthcare providers to care; how to provide the most optimum care they can give to help, heal, and improve for others. Patient centeredness has been introduced many years ago, and it entails that every patient is entitled to his or her specific plan of care, which will accept all of the patient’s values and views of any healthcare provider. Culture has been some of the obstacles that a nurse, doctor, or any healthcare provider may go through when providing care to a patient, because of the possible boundaries and barriers the patient might have. This is why it is important to make sure that the patient feels safe with anyone that would provide care. It is to make sure that everyone can help improve that certain patient’s life, whether it is a physical therapist, nursing assistant, or a family member, in the most efficient way that the patient can handle. Understanding a patient’s culture and their background is important because it allows for the patient’s values and concerns to be acknowledge. Being able to create a care plan that focuses on the patient is vital to understand how to readily improve an illness.

We must approach the patient and their family with an attitude of caring, empathy, and respect. We can explain that we would be happy to learn of the patients’ needs and concerns, and of any accommodations we can make so they will feel comfortable