Podcast Recap | Fixing Healthcare Podcast #114: An unfiltered look at empathy in medicine

In this podcast, host Dr. Robert Pearl discusses empathy in medicine with Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a cardiologist and advocate for clinician well-being. Dr. Pearl and Dr. Fisher explore empathy in healthcare professionals suffering from burnout and consider how clinicians can utilize empathy and gratitude to create a better relationship with their patients and improve their work-life balance.

Podcast length: 44 minutes

5 Key Takeaways

1. Empathy has two components, and understanding the distinction between them is crucial to preventing stress and overwhelm.

Dr. Fisher discusses the two components of empathy—cognitive and affective. Cognitive empathy is when you can imagine what others are going through. This type of empathy is overwhelmingly common in the healthcare setting. As clinicians, you constantly care for patients when they are at their worst and can consider the thoughts your patients and their families may be having. This process helps create a connection between yourself and the patient, as you can anticipate how to talk with them and handle different situations.

The second component is affective empathy. Affective empathy relates to emotions and how you internalize others’ feelings. Clinicians can experience this when treating patients with ailments that the clinician has dealt with outside of work. Becoming overwhelmed by someone else’s emotions isn’t beneficial to anyone. Understanding the distinction between the two forms of empathy can help healthcare professionals better bond with patients while still advocating for their own care.

2. People tend to be more caring towards those they identify with.

Empathy bias occurs when clinicians care more about patients who share parts of their identity. This bias could stem from people having the same skin color or cultural background. It’s part of our evolutionary biology to react toward people we can see ourselves in, but you can overcome empathy bias if you are aware of it. Finding common ground between yourself and all patients can help eliminate empathy bias, preventing disparities in care and human suffering.

3. Gratitude is generally beneficial, but forcing gratitude can lead to “toxic positivity.”

Gratitude is beneficial because it positively affects physiological well-being by improving mood and lowering the heart rate and heart rate variability. Studies show a lower risk of heart attack and stroke in those who regularly experience gratitude. Gratitude can positively affect those receiving it and the person expressing gratitude, helping create unity between individuals.

While gratitude is primarily positive, excessively focusing on positive thinking and forcing gratitude during challenging times can negatively impact those who are told to be grateful. During times of high stress, like the recent pandemic, feeling pressure to be thankful for something can cause a build-up of frustrations as the person hears that they should ignore the problem before them without any sense of resolution. This pressure can ultimately lead to decreased job satisfaction due to feeling like their pleas for resolution are being ignored or dismissed.

4. While empathy resides in the heart, it can impact emotional and physiological well-being.

Like gratitude, empathy impacts the body’s physical and physiological responses to stress. Simply approaching patients in a kind and caring way can help them feel comfortable by calming their nerves. This gesture can lower a patient’s heart rate and blood pressure during an examination and prevent potentially abnormal data points relating to vitals that are not representative of their normal state.

However, affective empathy can highly impact clinicians’ stress response. Constant exposure to highly stressful situations can negatively impact one’s mental health and begin to take a physiological toll, known as vicarious distress. Broken heart syndrome, a form of cardiomyopathy induced by intense emotional or physical stress, is an example of this phenomenon.

5. Repeated exposure to high-stress situations can lead to burnout.

Clinicians are no strangers to the effects of highly stressful situations on their bodies and minds. Clinicians and healthcare workers need to take the time to be mindful of their feelings. Mindfulness is about being aware of the moment-to-moment sensations throughout your body. When caring for highly critical patients, knowing how you feel and being mindful of when you need to take a step back is crucial in reducing the overwhelming response that can lead to burnout.

Empathy is essential for creating a connection between clinicians and their patients; however, affective empathy can be harmful if clinicians are not mindful of what they feel when caring for critically ill patients. Utilizing mindfulness can improve and reduce the risk of burnout by setting boundaries between work and personal life, allowing clinicians to be focused in the moment at home and detach from potential work-related stressors.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast recap are solely that of the host and guests and do not reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of epocrates and athenahealth.

Source:

Pearl, R (Host). (2023, November 28). FHC #114: An unfiltered look at empathy in medicine. [Audio podcast episode]. In Fixing Healthcare Podcast. https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/2023/11/28/fhc-114-unfiltered/