Empathy In Health Care

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Empathy and Sympathy in Medicine Effective communication skills are a key component to being successful in the medical field. A doctor must be able to communicate effectively with both their patients and also their colleagues. A patient not only wants a doctor who is good at practicing medicine, but also a doctor who can communicate well. The bond between a patient and a doctor is important in providing excellent healthcare. Empathy and sympathy are two components of communication that are essential in forming a relationship between a doctor and patient. Connecting with a patient on a deeper level can be accomplished through the doctor’s use of empathy. According to Shannon Webster (2012), “Empathy is the ability to understand, feel and …show more content…

When a patient knows that their doctor is empathetic towards them, it is not only good for communication, but also the overall well being of the patient. When patients perceive that they can connect on common ground with the physician, they have better recovery rates (Killam, 2014). The use of empathy can help promote more accurate diagnoses and more caring treatment. When a doctor is connected with the patient, they will strive to provide the best healthcare possible and see to it that the patient is comfortable and well informed throughout the …show more content…

According to Jack Coulehan, M.D. (2009), “Sympathy is an affective or emotional attribute that plays a somewhat ambiguous, if not detrimental, role in medical practice.” Sympathy is the feeling of sorrow or pity towards someone else’s misfortune. Empathy and sympathy are very closely related, however, empathy precedes sympathy. A doctor cannot sympathize with a patient unless they have some understanding of how he or she feels (Coulehan, 2009). This is so critical in healthcare because having sympathy towards a patient is to have genuine care or compassion for that

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