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Empathy is often seen as a nice — but nonessential — part of medicine. Indeed, for surgeons in the operating room, seeing the patient as a human being may actually be an obstacle to successful performance. At the bedside, however, doctors who are more empathetic actually have healthier patients, according to a new study published in the journal Academic Medicine.
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As has been mentioned multiple times in this blog, the issue of empathy among health professionals is very important. While students may enter medical school with the ability to empathize, less enter the workforce with this ability still in place. Indications are that students are taught to keep their emotions in check, perhaps even completely removed, when dealing with patients.
While this emotional-separation can prove vital in treating patients from a completely professional standpoint, it also puts patient interaction at risk. Now, a new study shows that students need not lose the ability. (img http://bit.ly/fpG2Ex)
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Doctors who are empathetic achieve better clinical results, a new study suggests. In the study, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia linked physicians' sympathy and compassion to the success of their treatment of patients with diabetes.
The study focused on 891 diabetic patients treated between 2006 and 2009 by 29 doctors at the school's department of family and community medicine. Prior to treatment, each of the physicians underwent a standardized test called the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, developed in 2001 to measure their empathy in the context of patient care.
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Is anyone else tired of hearing about how important empathy is in the doctor-patient relationship? Every other day it seems a new study is talking about the therapeutic value of empathy. Enough already!
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In experiments, students and nurses prescribed more pain
medicine to people of their own race until told to "imagine" how others felt... "The cool thing is, as humans, we can increase our empathy," Drwecki says. "You may not be the most naturally empathic person, but you can try these interventions and feel them working. Yes, racial bias in pain treatment exists, but it's not inevitable."
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There are two instances that universally trigger the "Awww" reaction -- seeing the face of a baby and the face of a baby animal, such as, a puppy, monkey, kitten, etc. The image of innocence can't help but pull at the heartstrings. Without even working at it, most people find themselves automatically empathizing with the baby's defenselessness and before we know it, feelings to protect the baby are aroused.
Yet, what happens when that baby gets older? Well, it doesn't take a scientific study to tell us what we already know -- empathy gets harder to come by, especially when we are of different races.
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On Google Books: How can doctors use empathy in diagnosing and treating patients rithout jeopardizing objectivity or projecting their values onto patients? Jodi Halpern, a psychiatrist, medical ethicist and philosopher, develops a groundbreaking account of emotional reasoning as the core of clinical empathy.
She argues that empathy cannot be based on detached reasoning because it involves emotional skills, including associating with another person's images and spontaneously following another's mood shifts. Yet she argues that these emotional links need not lead to over-identifying with patients or other lapses in rationality but rather can inform medical judgment in ways that detached reasoning cannot.
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Doctors are routinely missing or ignoring moments that beg for empathy and need more training in responding to human emotions, an article in Canada’s leading medical journal says. Researchers from the University of Toronto and Duke University in Durham, N.C., say studies suggest doctors fail up to 90% of the time to respond to emotional cues from their patients.
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This commentary does provide an update on the neurobiological findings on empathy but they’re not new and can also be read on this blog. What did catch my eye was the suggestion made by the author that overvaluing scientific measurement excludes empathy, as if being a technical good doctor almost excludes being an empathetic doctor which is to my opinion a big mistakes. There are brilliant doctors, even skilled surgeons, who also do have empathy for their patients.
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The ability to empathize with a patient not only makes doctors more likeable but improves the quality of care they provide, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. And as with knowing what test to run or what treatment to prescribe, empathy is a skill doctors have to learn, some doctors say.
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There are many good doctors out there doing what is best for their patients with diabetes. I want to give you my view of what you should expect in a doctor who helps you with your diabetes management.
First, you should expect empathy. This is a doctor’s most powerful tool and one we could all use more often.
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We had a wonderful meeting at the first Empathy Healthcare Café.
We received so many comments like, "great Café", "what's next?" and "how can we keep this going?" Thank you to everyone that contributed time, energy, ideas, stories, video, supplies, resources, etc. to hosting the Café.
Below is the video of the Café.
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To measure how a physician's empathy impacted a diabetic patient's treatment, the researchers used hemoglobin A1c test results to measure the adequacy of blood glucose control according to national standards. They also analyzed the patients' LDL cholesterol level. They believed that there would be a direct association between a higher physician JSE score and a better control of patients' hemoglobin A1c and LDL cholesterol levels.
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It has been thought that the quality of the physician-patient relationship is integral to positive outcomes but until now, data to confirm such beliefs has been hard to find. Through a landmark study, a research team from Jefferson Medical College (JMC) of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, has been able to document that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence. (img http://bit.ly/dP1O76)
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Diabetics have more control of their A1c and LDL levels when their doctors appear more understanding, a study says. Having empathy for patients isn't something physicians should do just to be nice. A study suggests that it also leads to better outcomes and should be seen as a key component of physician competence.
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From
uwire
With extensive research finding that black patients receive less health care treatment than white individuals, a University of Wisconsin researcher recently found a simple adjustment in a doctor’s empathy can greatly reduce these discrepancies.
A team of UW researchers, led by graduate student Brian Drwecki, found both trained health care professionals and students untrained in medicine demonstrated biases in the amount of treatment issued and scores on a scale of empathy. (img http://bit.ly/gVkjQR)
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Physicians recognize the importance of patients' emotions in healing yet believe their own emotional responses represent lapses in objectivity. Patients complain that physicians are too detached. Halpern argues that by empathizing with patients, rather than detaching, physicians can best help them.
Yet there is no consistent view of what, precisely, clinical empathy involves. This book challenges the traditional assumption that empathy is either purely intellectual or an expression of sympathy. Sympathy, according to many physicians, involves over-identifying with patients, threatening objectivity and respect for patient autonomy.
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Patients seek empathy from their physicians. Medical educators increasingly recognize this need. Yet in seeking to make empathy a reliable professional skill, doctors change the meaning of the term. Outside the field of medicine, empathy is a mode of understanding that specifically involves emotional resonance. In contrast, leading physician educators define empathy as a form of detached cognition. In contrast, this article argues that physicians' emotional attunement greatly serves the cognitive goal of understanding patients' emotions. This has important implications for teaching empathy.
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It is with empathy that we can engage and empower our patients.
Do you feel it is important for your doctor, nurse and other health care professionals to be empathetic towards your needs? Do they understand you? Do they listen to you, engage you and help empower you in your health care? Find out how doctors, nurses and other health clinicians can help engage and empower you.
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It has been reported that up to 60% of doctors suffer from symptoms of psychological job-exhaustion, or physician burnout, leading to diminished career satisfaction, substance abuse, divorce, quitting the profession, and suicide.
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A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has found that providers who show empathy can improve disease management efforts and patient satisfaction, in addition to lowering malpractice complaints. In clinical practice, doctors do not frequently express empathy, according to previous research. Oncologists who were video-recorded while speaking to their patients only responded to 22 percent of moments that were considered to be an empathic opportunity.
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Empathy (E) - Let the person know that you understand that this is a difficult time and situation for them. It is demeaning to say, "I know how you feel," unless you really do. I often say, "I have never had to walk in your shoes and I hope that I never will, but I can help you through this." It is helpful to ask someone, "What are you feeling?" and to empathize with them by saying, "This must be very distressing to you."
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