Empathy

Empathy is the understanding of and engagement with other people’s feelings. A good doctor treats disease, but an empathetic doctor treats the patient who has the disease.

Being able to put yourself into your patient’s shoes requires empathy, and being empathetic changes clinical practice in many positive ways. By seeing the problem from the perspective of the patient, the doctor can provide the best quality of care.

Empathy enables a better understanding of the needs of the patient: it provides an emotional connection between doctor and patient, allowing for a much more holistic approach to care. In turn, this gives the patient a greater degree of trust in their doctor.

But, although we might talk about empathy between doctor and patient, it’s very important to realise that empathy among all staff within a medical or surgical team, in whatever context, is critical to improving the overall quality of care that is delivered to the patient.

Interview questions about empathy

When asked about empathy as part of the interview, it’s very important not to be scripted in your answer. Be sure to bring in personal experience that individualises the question or scenario, order to demonstrate clearly that you are an empathetic person.

Tips on how to demonstrate empathy in interview scenarios:

• Try and draw on your own personal experiences.
• It’s really important to pay close attention to what your ‘patient’ or their advocate is saying.
• Take time to listen to the ‘patient’.
• Be encouraging.
• Be supportive
• Acknowledge their symptoms and their pain.
• Be reflective in their responses to questions such as ‘How does that make you feel?”.
• Think about what your body language is saying.
• Practise scenarios.

Empathetic statements:

• “I’m sorry you are going through this.”
• “Is there anything that I can help you with right now?”
• “How does this make you feel.”
• “I can see how this is very difficult for you.”
• “I’m happy to listen any time.”
• “I’m here for you.”