Empathy Indispensable Patient

Running Head: EMPATHY INDISPENSABLE

Empathy - An Indispensable Ingredient
Creola Reese
HHS 307 Communication Skills for Health & Human Service Personnel
Instructor: Tamikia Lott
December 22, 2013

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EMPATHY INDISPENSABLE

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Empathy - An Indispensable Ingredient
Is empathy a productive tool to develop effective patient provider communication? How does empathy influence active listening in therapeutic care settings? What role, if any, does empathy play in the delivery of cultural competent health care? This paper will examine the positive impact of empathy in establishing trusting patient-provider therapeutic relationships and the benefits of "putting oneself into another 's shoes."
While "empathy is commonly used but
There is no denying "empathy is commonly used but poorly understood concept often confused with related concepts of sympathy and pity" (Van Servellen, 2009). This is significance because the patient 's emotional status is closely associated with physical health outcomes and quality of care. "The actions of sympathy include the inclination to think or feel like another, but the crucial difference is sympathy also includes the display of pity or sadness" (Van Servellen,
2009). Sympathetic people are unable to separate their own feelings from those of the other.
"Sympathy tends to be a reactive response, turning attention to the provider and away from the patient" (Brown, et al., 2009). The distinct difference is "empathy is a preferred skill and sympathy can be considered risk" (Van Servellen, 2009). The benefits of empathy can stand alone. Empathy may not always be easily established and "could be viewed as a
Showing empathy by listening attentively and responding accordingly improves communication, reduces disparities and improve treatment outcomes" (Shannon, 2010). Patient satisfactions, greater treatment adherence, more accurate diagnoses of patients ' conditions, and fewer malpractices are positively attributions of empathy, indicators of healthy outcomes and the delivery of competent quality health care.
In conclusion empathy is a critical element in the delivery of cultural competent quality health care because it establishes trust need for a therapeutic patient-provider relationship, strengthens communication through active listening, and promotes culture awareness. “Empathy is an important human capability and the ability to understand, to blench and to disconnect from one’s personal feelings” (Ioannidou & Konstantikaki, 2008). Studies demonstrate patients experience "higher levels of trust and greater improvements in social skills in