Empathy is better felt than defined

Empathy is a cryptic term. Those in the health care profession can certainly spout off a variety of phrases and metaphors that are typically used to describe the concept of empathy in the educational setting. Throughout my medical education thus far it has been described as “putting yourself in another’s shoes” or “sharing in another’s emotion.” We are also taught early on what empathy is not. Empathy is not feeling sorry for someone. Now, these are all definitions that might be elicited when asking the average medical student about the concept of empathy. However, discussing empathy in a classroom does very little to advance one’s understanding of it. In fact, I would argue that most students would be quick to rank it as one of a physician’s most important qualities to possess, yet not be able to fully describe what it means. I was one of them. I do not intend to trivialize its importance within the framework of a wholesome medical education. Rather, I feel that its meaning can only be grasped after having employed it in practice. I am now a third-year medical student, and early in my internal medicine rotation, I was tasked with evaluating a woman in her thirties with stage four colon cancer. She had developed a clot in her subclavian vein, presumably from the port she had placed for the administration of chemotherapy agents. As a freshly-minted clinical student eager to evaluate, assess, and develop a treatment plan I entered the room already thinking of th...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Education Cardiology Hospital-Based Medicine Medical school Source Type: blogs