Aaron Paul1, Shalini Pooransingh1
1 Public Health and Primary Care Unit, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
Corresponding Author:
Dr. Shalini Pooransingh
[email protected]
DOAJ: a2724bfc3b7544e2a38df8a86909bf5d
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48107/CMJ.2024.12.001
Published Online: September 21, 2024
Copyright: This is an open-access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
©2024 The Authors. Caribbean Medical Journal published by Trinidad & Tobago Medical Association
Empathy is defined by the Society for General Medicine as “the act of correctly acknowledging the emotional state of another without experiencing that state oneself.” Empathy involves putting yourself in another’s shoes and understanding why they have those feelings. It requires access to another’s state of mind to fully comprehend their perspective. Empathy reflects emotional intelligence. Empathy is crucial in various fields, especially medicine, where successful patient management requires effective patient-physician interactions.
An interaction permanently etched in my mind is an experience my family had when my grandfather was warded for multiple organ failure. On Christmas morning 2020, we rushed to the hospital after receiving a call which we all dreaded. We were met by a young doctor in the hallway of the ward. My grandfather was pronounced dead one hour before we were contacted. The doctor approached us and just blurted out in the hallway, in a non-explanatory manner, “I’m sorry but the patient passed away earlier today. We tried everything possible.” This was my mother’s dad who had passed. Immediately my mother began sobbing in the middle of the hallway, nurses apparently only focused on getting to other patients, looked at our family in manners which could have only been judgmental of my mother’s demeanor and said “Can you please move from the hall, this is a busy place.” The doctor said nothing while looking at another patient’s file which he had in his hand when he saw us. No eye contact was made after such news. The doctor simply said a nurse will assist us and walked away after accepting a call on his phone. Our emotions were never considered, our time to process was overlooked. We were heart broken and felt ignored.
This moment from three years ago has not left my memory. This heart-breaking moment serves as a constant reminder of the emotional trauma patients experience when medical professionals fail to practice empathy. In my experience, from the time I spent on the wards, I can say that the burden doctors carry is significant and at times emotionally draining. From these frequent emotional events we have learnt that it can affect us by leading to mental breakdowns and subsequently affecting our ability to provide good quality care. We create a barrier with patients to prevent those deep emotions from overwhelming us. However, as health care practitioners we do need to remember that treating a patient requires looking at the whole person. The biopsychosocial model conceptualized by George Engel in 1977 suggests as such. This can help us keep in mind that empathy is a must for both the patient and their families.
Going forward with my career, I will strive to be attentive to the needs of my patients, understanding their concerns to ensure that I provide the best level of care I can with the means available. Empathy when practiced maintains and improves the doctor patient relationship to ensure that we provide a better quality of care.
Ethical approval statement: Not applicable
Financial disclosure or funding: Not applicable
Conflict of interest: Not applicable
Informed consent: Not applicable
