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Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts

Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Halpern, Jodi
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852904/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17443382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0102-3
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author Halpern, Jodi
author_facet Halpern, Jodi
author_sort Halpern, Jodi
collection PubMed
description Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about another’s particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing one’s own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients’ verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact.
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spelling pubmed-18529042008-04-30 Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts Halpern, Jodi J Gen Intern Med Perspectives Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about another’s particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing one’s own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients’ verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact. Springer-Verlag 2007-02-17 2007-05 /pmc/articles/PMC1852904/ /pubmed/17443382 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0102-3 Text en © Society of General Internal Medicine 2007
spellingShingle Perspectives
Halpern, Jodi
Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title_full Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title_fullStr Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title_full_unstemmed Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title_short Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
title_sort empathy and patient–physician conflicts
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852904/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17443382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0102-3
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