Hospitalists care for a variety of different types of patients, serving anyone and everyone in need of acute care. Because of the nature of our work, it is difficult to maintain empathy and compassion for all of our patients, especially in light of our unpredictable workload, long hours, and high stress. As such, all hospitalists need to be aware of what exactly compassion is, why it matters, and what we can do to guard against its natural erosion.
What Is Compassion? What Is Empathy?
Wikipedia defines compassion as “the emotion that one feels in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help.” The Latin derivation of compassion is “co-suffering.” Empathy is the ability to see and understand another’s suffering. So compassion is more than just empathy or “co-suffering”; with compassion comes yearning and a motivation to alleviate suffering in others.
Many important pieces within the definition of compassion need more explanation. Notice the three distinct “parts” of the definition: “the emotion that one feels”… “in response to the suffering of others”…“that motivates a desire to help.”
The first part outlines the fact that we have to be willing and able to conjure up an emotion toward and with our patients. Although this may sound basic, some physicians purposefully guard themselves against forming emotional responses toward or with their patients. Some actually think it will make them better—and more “objective”—providers if they guard against the (potentially) painful burden of sharing such empathic emotions.
Social science research has found that providers’ concerns about becoming emotionally exhausted might lead them to reduce their compassion for entire groups of patients, such as mentally ill or drug-addicted patient populations. There is also evidence that your ability to have empathy or compassion for another correlates with the ability to picture yourself with the same issue the patient suffers. This causes a major obstacle for many providers, who find themselves unable to relate to patients with “self-inflicted” issues, such as habits that increase the likelihood of disease (e.g. smoking) or not participating in habits that decrease the likelihood of disease or successful treatments (e.g. not exercising or not taking medications correctly).
Providers are more likely to be compassionate toward patients with whom they can identify; I would have enormous compassion for a 43-year-old female with new-onset ovarian cancer but would have less compassion for a 43-year-old male with new-onset alcohol withdrawal seizures.
The second part of the definition brings up the need to acknowledge suffering, in whatever form it takes. When we think of suffering, we often connect the idea with physical pain. But there are innumerable forms of nonphysical human suffering, including psychological and social trauma; this includes the anxiety that arises from known and unknown diagnoses and treatments and the emotional exhaustion resulting from such diagnoses and treatments. We need to be able to acknowledge all forms of suffering, not just physical suffering.
The last part of the definition shows that after we have allowed ourselves to “feel” the emotion of others and to acknowledge all walks of suffering, we then need to be motivated to help. For a hospitalist, this would mean “going the extra mile” for patients, such as continuously checking and rechecking on how treatments are (or are not) working, keeping the patient and family informed (in their terms) about what is happening, or ensuring that transitions of care (to other services or in/out of the hospital) are done with keen attention to reduce the risk of “voltage drops” in information.
Two videos help illustrate the nature of compassion (see the video sidebar for URLs). Both depict young women who have been called upon to sing the national anthem before a large crowd at an athletic gathering. Both women are clearly excellent singers, and both have a similar outcome in mind: to sing the national anthem in a manner pleasing to everyone in the crowd. In both cases, they forgot the words of the song.
I feel to be in the medical field you have to have compassion and empathy, patients come in to get help and sometimes doctors and nurses are all they have to talk to. I feel in this line of work we have to be all in, I know sometime taking on others buriden hurts but guess what if you can’t get your patient to talk to you about everything going on then how can you help then. I feel others pain and I don’t know how or why but I do and I can’t walk away without doing all I can to help them. Sometimes we just want a ear and sometimes we need to hear the true to help us better understand what we got going on so we can deal with it but without empathy and compassion how can you serve the public in a field so powerful.Our Doctors are a last line of defence and without them giving they all we fall.
It’s important to be compassion toward patients when being in the medical industry.you also got to have empathy towards patients,they need to know that we will help them in every way that we can do for them. I know the pain and suffering that they feel and i can relate to them. I believe by doing this the patient would open up to us. I feel if i can get them to open up and find that we are here for her. i can’t stand not doing every thing in my power to help them out, and help them get through it. I can not wait to get my degree . Then i can help people that are sad and confused. Patients need to know that we care, and that we will do are best to help them.
In the medical field I think well i know empathy and compassion is very important, yes i know that sometimes taking on others buriden can be a lot at times but we have to understand who and why the patient is number 1 and this field, our patients need to know and understand that we care and understand them. Sometimes they just need a ear and hand they can count on because they might don’t have anyone that cares for them, so its very important to gain the patients trust, letting them know I am also a friend, so they are able to tell you everything that’s going on with them because u build that trust bond with them. I love to help and make others smile and feel safe and comfortable speaking to me, I can’t walk away from my patients without knowing everything what’s going on with them and understanding why . The patients have to have a smile on they face before I or them walk away from me.
In the medical field, I believe that, I understand empathy quite well. You must have the ability, to see and understand others who are suffering. I have experienced this, through family members as well, who needed my care. Sometimes all it takes, is to put yourself, in your patients position. They want to be understood. They want to know you are there for them. They want to see, you understand, and even have compassion for them. I have a big heart. I always have. Since I was a child, I have wanted to help people. I don’t like it, when someone comes to me even now, and I cannot relate to what they are going through. I always have compassion. I always do whatever it takes, to try to understand where someone is coming from. Never pass judgement. Put yourself in that patient’s shoes. If you do all these things, you will realize that you will be a very wonderful heath care provider.