Doctors have limited empathy skills, study shows. They were shown to deliver empathy only 10% of the time when talking with cancer patients. In audio taped meetings with patients, researchers identified 384 "empathic opportunities," but found that the physicians responded empathically to only 39 of them. Each encounter elicited an average of less than two empathic responses from the doctor.
Listen, my dad was a doctor, so I know all about doctors and their limited empathy skills. It doesn't make them bad people, just bad at empathy; bad at creating stronger connections. (Could it be the reason I was drawn to the study of empathy?)In any case, for all those left-brain, task-driven doctors (or any other professions), try this strategy. When you hear someone express emotionally, start your responding sentences with:
- I imagine......
- I can sense that.....
- I realize that .....
- It sounds like you are feeling .....
So when a patient says, "This is kind of overwhelming," a doctor could start out with, "I imagine.....". And once that phrase starts, you'd be surprised how quickly the brain kicks in to finish the sentence with congruity. A doctor (of friend, or spouse, or....) could say:
- "I imagine it can be overwhelming to hear grave news and thoughts of future and family flood your mind."
- "I realize you must be feeling overwhelmed at the tragic news and the aggressive treatment plan. It's certainly overwhelming to have to plan for something like this."
As the study states, "The most important job of a physician is also the most important job for a minister or for a lawyer or anyone else: To try and help people cope with the uncertainties of life."
Here's the article:
For Some Doctors, Empathy Is in Short Supply By
Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, September 22, 2008; 12:00 AM
MONDAY, Sept. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors are missing their cues when it
comes to opportunities to empathize with the plight of their cancer patients, a
new study suggests.
While doctors are able to address such concerns as medication issues, missed
appointments, or pain, they tended to skirt "existential" issues,
such as questions dealing with life and death, which are of paramount
importance to most patients, the study authors said.
"Physicians only responded to 10 percent of empathic opportunities and,
when patients raised existential concerns, physicians tended to shift more to
biomedical responses," said study author Dr. Diane Morse, an assistant
professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical
Center, in
Yet this may be the most important point of intersection between a doctor
and his or her patient.
"The relationship between a patient and a physician is more than just
the delivery of a diagnosis or a treatment plan," said Dr. Arthur Frankel,
a professor of medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of
Medicine. "Basically, for cancer care, if you're not able to form a close
tie with your patient and improve their quality of life, then there's a real
question as to what you are doing.
"We can hopefully, at times, make suggestions or do things with
patients that may buy some time and, in some cases, long-term remissions. But,
by and large, the major job of an oncologist is to bond with the patient and
the patient's family and help them with a crisis," added Frankel, who's
also director of the Cancer Center, Cancer Research Institute and Division of
Hematology/Oncology at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas.
Empathy -- identifying with and understanding another person's situation and
feelings -- has been linked with improved patient satisfaction, including less
anxiety and better compliance with treatment. Physicians, residents and medical
students also show evidence of more satisfaction and less burnout if they provide
empathy, Morse said.
For the study, she and her colleagues analyzed 20 audio-recorded and
transcribed interactions between male patients with lung cancer and their
thoracic surgeons or oncologists.
The researchers identified 384 "empathic opportunities," but found
that the physicians responded empathically to only 39 of them. Each encounter
elicited an average of less than two empathic responses from the doctor.
Empathic opportunities included patient statements such as, "This is
kind of overwhelming," and "Im fighting it."
When the doctors did show empathy, half the time it was in the last third of
the encounter, even though patients had been raising concerns throughout the
session.
"Physicians are more comfortable about things they know what to do
about, like 'I ran out of my medicine,' 'I couldn't get appointment,' 'I'm
having pain,'" Morse said. "But when the patient asks how much longer
do I have to live, it's scary. It's hard to know what to say."
"It would be helpful for physicians to think about having a response
ready," Morse added. "The bulk of patients' concerns are existential
and physicians don't necessarily have to do something to fix it. Just
acknowledging it, in and of itself, can be very helpful and it doesn't take a
lot of time."
Added Frankel: "The most important job of a physician is also the most
important job for a minister or for a lawyer or anyone else: To try and help
people cope with the uncertainties of life."
The findings are published in the Sept. 22 issue ofArchives of Internal
Medicine.
More information
For more on doctors and empathy, visit Kaiser Permanente.
SOURCES: Diane S. Morse, M.D., assistant professor, medicine and psychiatry,
University of Rochester School of Medicine, N.Y.; Arthur Frankel, M.D.,
professor, medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine,
and director, Cancer Center, Cancer Research Institute and Division of
Hematology/Oncology, Scott & White Hospital, Temple, Texas; Sept. 22,
2008,Archives of Internal Medicine
We must be thankful to all those physicians, taking care of the health of a certain person. But there are also physicians which doesn't have the ability to cure a disease; in other words just pretending to be good.
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