Empathy In The Medical Field

Empathy is simply a noun with three syllables. However, I believe having this quality is an essential in being a health care professional. To me, empathy doesn’t simply mean being able to understand the feelings of another. Empathy entails emotionally stepping into the shoes of an individual, and syncing their feelings into your own. Being empathetic allows for us to establish bonds of trust between one another, giving us insights as to what we are feeling, and ultimately contributing towards decision making. As much as I would like to say I was born with this trait, I acquired this trait later on in my life, however it was definitely was worth cultivating. During my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I volunteered at The First Church

Empathy is therefore a vital link in the process of Emotional Intelligence. (Ioannidou, F. 2008). In relation to Nursing, it enables nurses who have well developed empathetic listening skills to establish a rapport with a patient which can assist in establishing effective solutions and building a trusting professional nurse/patient relationship. By using effective skills in empathetic communication, Nurses have the ability to divert a potential highly emotional situation into effective and positive interactions. (Halpern, J. & Ebrary 2001)

Another crucial interpersonal skill which assumes a critical part in a radiographer- patient relationship is empathy. Eunson (2012) describes empathy as the emotional appreciation of another’s feelings. Not to be confused as sympathy, but empathetic people might squeeze ones hand in times of trouble, or offer kind words when one is grieving. According to research, empathy is ‘to recognise others' emotions, the reason for these emotions, and to have the capacity to take part in the emotional journey of a single person without directly be coming apart of it’ (Casselden, 1988). Needless to say,

All too often in regards to medical treatment, physicians are taught everything known about the scientific approaches to disease but still fail to realize the important details of how the disease impacts the individual. Many physicians do not show empathy to their patients and instead just focus on the current diagnosis and the probable outcome. This creates a divide between patient and provider and can even lead to negative feelings of the patient that far outweigh the diagnosis itself. A feeling of hopelessness and despair may accompany the empty feeling that comes with failing to explore the patient’s perspective on care. In this essay, Parrish states,

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.

The care that I will give my patient will also involve being empathic. This will enhance the development of the therapeutic relationship that will finally improve the outcomes. Compassion and empathy will make my patients more forthcoming with their symptoms. This yields accurate diagnosis. It also improves care given to patients. The interaction that takes place during this process affects the patient's recovery process. I also intend to cultivate a culture of trust between me and my patients. It has to be there for me to realize effective therapeutic relationship that leads to job satisfaction.

Empathy should play an active role in the daily lives of everyone, but in particular in the day-to-day lives of a healthcare professional. Healthcare professionals have the unique and challenging job of counseling patients in times of need, whether that is in the setting of a newly diagnosed disease or in the death of a family member. This unique challenge requires all healthcare professionals to be skilled at using empathy in the appropriate circumstances.

Empathy is viewed as an essential aspect of the counseling relationship. Discuss the difference between primary and advanced accurate empathy. What barriers exist to the development of empathy? How might these barriers be overcome?

This article looks into the profession and personal relationship expectations professionals are expected to have with their living patiences and the deceased, as students. Before the 1960 to the 1970 's the expectations are set that the doctors are to know more, have good bedside manner, be personal but not to cross the line of developing relationships. This eventually changed to the expectations of having "an 'affective neutrality ' or a 'detached concern ' for clients". Due to the social norms of the time of persons in authority situations having a more colder demeanor to gain that power over others. There seems to be a fine line of expectations of the physicians to show sympathy, but not to care to much in worry that it would effect the decision and care of the health care being provided. Along with having control over the way a physician cares for the individuals other basic human emotions, such as disgust and attraction need to be in check at all times as well. Unity in caring for all patients is key , not only as

Sympathy differs from empathy, in that with empathy one experiences an objective understanding of what another person is feeling. For example, when a nurse is showing empathy, he/she accurately perceives and understands what the patient is feeling. On the other hand, sympathy is the actual sharing of another’s feelings.

As a leader in a deployed environment, have you ever asked yourself the question, “I’m over here risking my life for these people, why aren’t they helping us find the bad guys?”, or “why can’t these people understand that we could complete this great project for them but they aren’t interested in helping themselves?!”, if so, then you likely found yourself looking across an empathy gap. Time and again we have failed in engagements due to an inability to take the perspective of other individuals. We have all seen examples of that young platoon leader engaging with local leaders in a disrespectful and counterproductive manner. As a lieutenant in Iraq during OIF I, I walked into engagements the exact same way, heavy-handed, dictatorial, and uninterested

The key finding of this study was that, contrary to popular belief, undergraduate nursing students actually show decreasing levels of empathy as they moved through their nursing course. The purpose of the study was to examine if increased exposure to clinical experience among undergraduate nursing students would change their level of empathy. Results from the survey showed a decline in empathy among students with more patient and clinical exposure, and those with prior work experience. The authors concluded that decreased empathy among nursing students may be due to the curriculum being too focused on competency in technology and tasks, and the lack of exposure of nursing students to professional nursing role models that practice empathically. The study did not present a patient point of view on empathy changes among nursing students. If I was to apply this study to my own practice, I

In Chapter 5, The Author discuss the role of pervasive role of confirmation and empathy in health care. Empathy is considered as an important part of the emotional intelligence which is defined as the ability to understand and manage emotions of yourself and people around you. Empathy helps to build trust and hope in patient -provder relationship. Empathy or "capability of emotional knowing" is a part of behavioral attribute that contribute to quality of social interaction. Author has informed about the Jafferson Scale of Physician Emapathy (JSPE), which is used to evaluate empathy in healthcare providers.

Observing a GP during patient consultations, seeing his genuine concern and caring interest in each case, demonstrated fully the importance of compassion and effective communication. In a GP home visit, I met an elderly lady with Alzheimer's, who displayed no wish to cooperate, something I initially found difficult to comprehend. However, on reflection I understood the patient's right to refuse treatment, perhaps indicating this person's wish to retain some control in their life. The variety of my work experience has meant that I have been in the company of professionals who exhibited traits I believe I have developed through mentoring and teaching. These traits such as courtesy and empathy would ensure that I adopt a composed manner in sensitive or stressful situations, enabling me to communicate my understanding of what they are experiencing both physically and

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.