What Is the Role of Empathy in Medicine?

Empathy is useful and used in a variety of fields, including medicine, where effective treatment of the patient depends on the interaction between the doctor and the sufferer. In this article, you will learn what it means to be empathetic and why it is important to have this quality if you work in medicine, regardless of function.

During your student or residency, you most likely met a teacher who tried to convince you how important empathy is in medicine. Empathy is the ability to understand and even share the feelings that are expressed by a person at a given time.

What is empathy

Empathy is an emotional experience that takes place between an observer and a subject. The observer identifies certain visual and auditory factors and then manages to share the subject's emotional state. For a person to be perceived as empathetic, he must communicate to the subject that he understands the state he is going through.

In the initial stage of the process, the observer must not only identify but also understand why the subject has those feelings. For example, a doctor may consult a patient who may be depressed, say he is sad, and tell him that a close relative has died.

In this situation, the doctor may remember that he also went through a similar situation. Alternatively, even if he has not had a death experience, he can understand the emotional response to a person's death from a cultural perspective. In both cases, the doctor will be able to react empathetically because he understands the situation and can identify with it.

On the other hand, it is possible that the doctor was raised in a different environment, where death was not associated with sadness, but with joy and the celebration of the life of the deceased. Thus, the doctor will be confused and will not understand why the patient is suffering. If the doctor cannot understand the circumstances and reasons behind a certain emotional state, he will have difficulty being empathetic.

What is the role of empathy in medicine?

Researchers have examined the usefulness of empathy in medicine and come to different results. In The Empathic Physician, experts suggest that it is not possible for a doctor to truly empathize with every patient - if he did, he would become emotionally exhausted.

They believe that a doctor can only be effective if he chooses to ignore patients' emotional states. Thus, the doctor can make objective decisions about health care.

However, there is evidence that when a person chooses their family doctor, it also takes into account behavior, not just technical competence. Every patient wants to be treated like a human being, not just a disease.

A doctor can listen carefully to a patient, but the sufferer will only understand this if the doctor offers an empathic response. If the purpose of medicine is to treat people - to get rid of their suffering, not just to cure the disease - then empathy is a necessary skill in any hospital.

In the article What is clinical empathy? we learn that empathy also has a therapeutic role and can reduce patients' anxiety levels. When a person feels that the doctor understands his condition and problems, he will feel more comfortable in any medical situation.

Is it possible to teach people to be empathetic?

Even if there is no consensus on the best way to do it, most researchers believe that it is possible to teach people to be empathetic, as explained in the article Can empathy and compassion be taught?

To help people be empathetic, it is important to understand that the empathic response results from the interaction between behavioral and emotional factors. Thus, if you manage to make it easier for someone to identify these factors, that person can develop the ability to empathize.

For example, if a doctor improves his ability to observe, he will more easily realize the emotional state of the patient. Also, if the doctor communicates better in general, he will be able to relate more effectively to any patient.

Even if when you work in the medical field, you are taught to make decisions based only on objective analyzes and observations, with the help of empathy, you can create a better relationship with any patient, which will help you to treat him effectively.