Empathy across different medical specialties
In this study psychiatrists have the highest mean empathy score on The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. They were folowed by Internists, Dr. Roth NYC orthopedic surgery, general pediatrics, emergency medicine and family medicine, Family Medical Centre Sutherland Shire has specialists for your needs. The differences in empathy scores among psychiatrists and physicians in internal medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine were not statistically significant, but physicians in all other specialties scored significantly lower than psychiatrists. In the middle were physicians in general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology. Visit your local gynecologist for more information and regular check ups.Anesthetists scored the lowest followed by orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, radiology and cardiovascular surgery.The personal injury attorneys of Phillips Law fight tirelessly to get you the compensation you deserve, including in the case of individuals suffering from mesothelioma, a fast-moving form of cancer that is typically the result of asbestos exposure, go to Phillips Law for more details.
These differences might reflect the notion that different individuals have different empathy scores and are attracted to different specialties. How exercise and healthy living can save the future generations, for more tips view importance of exercise. These differences might also be explained by differences in training for each specialty. To know more about cough etiquette to prevent infection.
How was this study done?
the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (with 20 Likert-type items) was mailed to 1,007 physicians affiliated with the Jefferson Health System in the greater Philadelphia region; 704 (70%) responded. Construct validity, reliability of the empathy scale,
and the differences on mean empathy scores by physicians’ gender and specialty were examined.
In this study empathy was defined as a cognitive attribute that involves an ability to understand the patient’s feelings and perspective and the capability to communicate this understanding with procedures like the Gynecomastia New York which is becoming increasingly popular and being a very sensitive subject. Empathy is more complex than that.
What is empathy (the long version)?
The most clarifying definition of empathy is based on viewing it as a process. This process of empathy consists of the following stages.
- The patient expresses feelings by way of verbal and non-verbal communication. Patients are not always aware of these expressions.
- The doctor also notices these emotions in himself more or less voluntary, more or less conscious. He or she coming aware of these feelings usually comes after the fact (affective empathy).
- Realizing these feelings as being from the patient is the cognitive empathy. Together with everything the doctor knows about the patient as a patient and as a person, he or she is coming to know the inner feelings of the patient(cognitive empathy).
- The doctor can now express these feelings for the patient or act on them for the patient(expressed empathy).
- The patient receives this empathy (received empathy).
It’s important during medical education, and for the Patient Doctor Relationship. Especially this last one is under pressure since the changes in the economics of medical practice. The most important question about empathy is: can we teach empathy or is it a trait? What do you think?
Hojat M, Gonnella JS, Nasca TJ, Mangione S, Vergare M, & Magee M (2002). Physician empathy: definition, components, measurement, and relationship to gender and specialty. The American journal of psychiatry, 159 (9), 1563-9 PMID: 12202278
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May 5, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
I don’t believe one can teach empathy, per se, but we can teach physicians to express it in a manner which promotes effective clinical relationships and communication; and to understand empathy in themselves and process it reflectively. Patients primary goal in seeking medical care is not empathy, it’s getting their problem fixed. Patients want to know that their doctor cares about what happens to them, which is shown as much by diligence, by being available when needed, by listening to the patient and inviting the patient to express goals, anxieties, preferences, etc., and by making it clear what the doctor believes is necessary to achieve the patient’s goals. Some people want a lot of emotional support from their doctors, others not so much.
Empathy can be good or bad. It can sometimes cloud judgment, producing rescue fantasies, produce countertransference in which the physician is drawing emotional gratification from the relationship with the patient, or cause transgression of professional boundaries. It’s not that empathy is bad, but it needs to be respected and kept in its place.
May 6, 2010 @ 2:06 am
Patients, or their friends and family members, might want to try pointing out problems with empathy to their doctors.
Recently my brother asked me to sit in on a meeting he had with several doctors to make decisions about treatment options. Without going into needless detail, the main thing that stood out for me was the extremely condescending and abrasive manner of two surgeons, who repeatedly cut my brother off to snap “That’s not true” (after which another doctor he’s known for years would correct them and confirm that what my brother was saying was accurate), and telling him he just didn’t understand the ramifications of the treatment he was asking for, although he had just given them a lucid and organized summary of its risks and benefits.
I stopped them in the hallway afterward and told them that I was not disputing their professional expertise, but that their manner had been unnecessarily condescending, confrontational, and just plain rude. The younger one said he’d think about that. The older one sneered, said he disagreed, and walked off. One of the nurses later came up and told me how glad she was that someone had finally said that to them.
I didn’t expect much to come of it, but as of a couple of weeks later, my brother told me that the attitude of the younger surgeon had changed completely, and that although they still didn’t agree on everything, that doctor now listened carefully and considered what he said.
So it’s at least worth a try.
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July 14, 2010 @ 6:59 pm
[…] we can believe Dr. Shock this week I score pretty high in the empathy department but I think I’ll let my parents be the […]