PLX Academy · Personal Experience · 14 April 2022
Empathy in healthcare plays vital roles in the patient experience and is a key component of the physician-patient relationship. Expressing empathy is highly effective and powerful, which builds patient trust, calms anxiety and improves health outcomes.
Empathy encompasses a connection and an understanding that includes the mind, body and soul.
Empathy extends far beyond a patient’s medical history, signs and symptoms. It is more than a clinical diagnosis and treatment.
“Physician empathy a key driver of patient satisfaction” published by the Science Daily points out that sixty-five percent of patient satisfaction was attributed to physician empathy. Empathy is associated with better adherence to medications, decreased malpractice cases, fewer mistakes and improved patient experience.
Empathy is defined as, “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” It is the capacity to put one’s self in another’s shoes and feel what that person is going through and share their emotions and feelings. It is the recognition and validation of a patient’s fear, anxiety, pain, and worry. It is the ability to understand patients’ feelings and facilitate a more accurate diagnosis and more caring treatment. Expressing empathy in healthcare is the key ingredient to enhancing the patient experience and patient encounter.
The reason empathy is so necessary is that people are under a lot of stress and evidence suggests that it is being influenced by the pandemic. When we are going through difficult times, dealing with burnout or struggling to find happiness at work, empathy may be a strong antidote that contributes to great experiences for individuals and teams.
A global study by Qualtrics found 42% of people have experienced a decline in mental health. Specifically, 67% of people are experiencing increases in stress while 57% have increased anxiety, and 54% are emotionally exhausted. 53% of people are sad, 50% are irritable, 28% are having trouble concentrating, 20% are taking longer to finish tasks, 15% are having trouble thinking and 12% are challenged to juggle their responsibilities.
Expressing empathy greatly affects our personal lives.
A study in Occupational Health Science found our sleep is compromised when we feel stressed at work. Research at the University of Illinois found that when employees receive rude emails at work, they tend to experience negativity and spillover into their personal lives and particularly with their partners. In addition, a study at Carleton University found that when people experience incivility at work, they tend to feel less capable in their parenting.
Empathy also influences work performance, turnover and personal experience. Studies found that when people are on the receiving end, work place incivility is rising and the effects are extensive, including reduced performance and collaboration, deteriorating personal experiences and increased turnover.
Empathy contributes to positive relationships and organizational cultures and it also drives results. It is not a new ability, but it has taken on a new significance, as evidenced by new studies. Empathy is the leadership capacity to cultivate and demonstrate now and in the future of work.