Tag: empathy, medicine

In general, empathy is easier the more we can identify with someone. When we can genuinely envision ourselves in a situation, it’s possible to intuit what that person’s suffering might feel like.

It can be rough going to maintain both composure and empathy in these situations, but a doctor’s failure to do that is probably the number one reason why patients feel dissatisfied with their physicians and end up doctor-shopping endlessly.

But while the patient does bear some responsibility, I believe that the onus falls more heavily on the doctor to be attuned to the factors–cultural, ethnic, or just personal style–that influence how patients present their symptoms.

But I realized that not only did I need to keep tuning my skills as a doctor, I also had to figure out a way to live with the uncertainty of medicine and its attendant anxiety.

Empathy requires being attuned to the patient’s perspective and understanding how the illness is woven into this particular persons’ life. Last–and this is where doctors often stumble–empathy requires being able to communicate all of this to the patient.