Empathy Flashcards
Define empathy
Putting yourself in the shoes of others
Understanding and sharing the feelings or experience with someone
Why is empathy important
- Reveals ways to improve their care which they may not have considered before. E.g. patient – hoist – bear
- Easier to discuss their concerns
- Involves holistic medicine
- They feel less alone - can make people feel safer in your company
Is The Practice Of Being An Empathetic Healthcare Professional Something That You Can Learn In A Lecture?
- May give you insightful points that are effective
- Yet it is intrinsically people-based and best learnt with experience and maturity
- Watching other healthcare professionals on wards etc is the best way to learn
What is more important - sympathy or empathy
Sympathy - may feel sad for another person or sad about a situation they have found themselves in and offer support in an affectionate way
Yet, still can provide some comfort but is:
More at a distant, less deep connection. With empathy, you feel more understood and not just validated
e.g. lumbar puncture – allows to communicate reasons for intervention, how it will feel, risks and dangers of not proceeding
How Would You Explain To A Patient That They Need To Have Another Blood Sample Taken, As The Results Of The Last Test Having Been Lost?
Apologise
Put self in shoes - may have been uncomfortable and asked to go through again or worried over privacy issues over loss of sample
Speak clearly, politely so clear
Be open and honest - don’t use euphemisms
Eye contact - non-verbal communication is important
e.g. I am very sorry that I have to take more blood. I can imagine you’re feeling frustrated about this as you’ve been waiting a while and have not received results yet. Please be assured I will not share results outside of the medical team. I can see that it might be worrying that your last test was lost, but we take confidentiality very seriously and will do our absolute best to make sure that this is preserved
Why Should Members Of A Healthcare Team Show Empathy Towards One Another As Well As Towards Their Patients?
Stressful and demanding job - having people who understand this can allow you to offload
Circumstances outside job - relating can help keep them focussed
Improves teamwork so more efficient
As A Doctor, How Would You Deal With A Parent Who Has Brought Their Child Into Accident And Emergency And Is Angry About Them Having To Wait A Long Time To Be Seen?
ICE
Apologise
Ask why worried and what they want you to do about the situation
A and e is a distressing environment and you want them to be confident that their child will receive the best quality care
Any other reasons angry?
Need to use a phone?
Explain triage system
What Would You Say To A Female Patient Who Is Scared To Get The HPV Vaccine Which Protects Against Cervical Cancer?
What aspects scared about?
Give more info on vaccine and why it is important
Autonomy is important
Understandable, clear way
As a recently-qualified junior doctor, you are given the chance to perform your first unsupervised colonoscopy. During the procedure, the colonoscope perforates the colon, resulting in the patient becoming acutely unwell and dying just 2 days after. The patient’s family has now come to see you; how would you base your approach to the situation?
Private, confidential - no time pressure or disruption
Explain clearly and truthfully
Listen to their feelings and concerns
Signpost to counselling
Q’s or concerns?
Phase of supervised practice
What thoughts and feelings will go through the head of a patient after having been told that their alcoholism has led to irreversible liver damage?
Guilt
Remorse
Anger
Hopeless
- Can you demonstrate you are a peoples person and have a strong concern for the welfare and care of others?
HCA Charity officer for swim team Inclusions officer - set up womens only sessions Dementia friend Volunteering for 5 years Autistic boy
- One of my younger swimmers with severe autism and so when they first joined the club, they had complex behavioural issues and struggled to follow instructions and weren’t very confident in the water, often becoming quite anxious
- I adapted my communication skills to ensure I said things clearly, and always asked if he wanted me to repeat anything to make sure he understood my instructions. I also used a lot of positive reinforcement by putting my thumbs up as he swam to increase his confidence and also used positive behavioural management strategies, for example, instead of saying stop doing that if he was misbehaving, I’d say to other swimmers good job thank you for listening to me while I’m speaking so he knew what good behaviour looked like. I’d also carry out the session in a similar order with a warm up, main session and swim down so knew what to expect and this reduced anxiety and use a lot of visual strategies and hand actions and get people to demonstrate to explain things better
- We have a Christmas party each year too which is lovely and held a 60th birthday party at the rotary club near the train station, which helped him to interact and feel safer with the other swimmers
- In the end, his confidence increased so much and he actually got a speeding fine for going too fast at the gala and had a huge grin when he finished his race which was so lovely to see
2 situations where you have dealt with a particularly sensitive case
Inclusions
Unsure if join sports team due to online bullying. Wanted to keep anonymous so I appreciated this. I sent out an email to all the club members to remind them of the code of conduct. I got in touch with student support services as I felt out of my depth. I also reported this to the welfare team within Sports Sheffield who organised a meeting with her support. They were able to see things from her perspective and were temporarily suspended. The team dynamic massively improved.
Importance of empathy, dealing with difficult situation and communication skills. Learnt to not take things on so personally.
OR
Safeguarding issue in community
Learnt: empathy, dealing with difficult situations, confidentiality
2 situations showed empathy
- Patient late - I was new, she was incredibly angry and frustrated and shouting - I got the brunt of it as I walked in - I listened to it and could understand that she has been telling the office repeatedly but nothing had happened - she was tried and wanted to go to bed - I could understand and feel for her in this situation - she could see this too and I brought it up at the office the next day - could have talked to other staff members too
Patient with the hoist - did in training, understood how scary it could be - could have told other staff members
AD patient who thought she was homeless - could have distracted her better with a book
