Healthcare Empathy Analysis

In any healthcare setting, it is important that a patient feels that he or she is understood and that his or her feelings are taken into consideration. Most patients do not want to merely be “felt sorry” for. This is why empathy, especially in the doctor’s office or pharmacy, is so important. Empathy involves seeing a patient’s point of view from his or her own perspective and responding in an understanding manner, even if their point of view conflicts with our own. Being able to convey empathy in a healthcare setting without coming off as condescending or overly-sympathetic is a valuable strength. It establishes trust in a professional/patient relationship. Unfortunately, empathy is not always easily conveyed. Many practitioners likely

implemented the use of a Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) scale. This scored physicians from 10 to 50 points based on 10 criteria. Another scale, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, allows the physician to rate his or her own ability to be empathic. The latter empathy scale is likely less accurate as the evaluators of the physicians’ attitudes are the physicians themselves. Bias would likely creep into the physicians’ self-assessments causing inconsistencies with the patient-mediated assessments. For example, a doctor might feel that he or she explained something clearly to the patient from his or her point of view, but from the patient’s perspective, few layman’s terms were used which would convey that the practitioner did not care whether the patient fully understood. A doctor might also have averted eyes, suggesting to the patient that he or she is not paying attention, when actually, the doctor is fully attentive. Small misunderstandings like this increase the need for practitioners to be more fully aware of a patient’s feelings, and attempt to convey information in such a way that the patient feels

Many times there are barriers that stand in the way of empathic interactions with customers. For example, the average community pharmacy can be quite hectic at times. With a constant influx of customers, it becomes difficult to give every patient the attention and care that he or she deserves. This leads to rushed consultations and poor feedback from the pharmacist. All of the elements of the CARE scale suffer because of a rushed pharmacist. More specifically, the severity of a patient’s disease could be a barrier to demonstrating the CARE element of positivity. A pharmacist might have a difficult time remaining positive without sounding overly optimistic. Unfortunately, a pharmacist’s personal opinion about what is best for the patient could also have a negative effect on empathy. By refusing to see the patient’s point of view from another perspective, the “letting you tell your story” element of the CARE scale likely