Empathy: How it Matters and its Relevance to the Medical Humanities
To Render the Lives of Patients by Rita Charon
The writer brings out the theme of empathy in her story, whereby a young medical student had to deal with a stubborn and confused patient. For every medical case, a physician is supposed to exercise patience, empathy, and compassion for his or her patient, however, ironically, in this case, the medical student was agitated and angry with his patient for her lack of cooperation that he was forced to tie her to the bed and forcefully administer treatment. The trainee felt like seeking revenge against his patient because she interrupted his daily routine hospital routine. Hence, the patient dehumanized him, which forced him to dehumanize her as well so as to administer medication.
The 3rd year medical student learned how to show empathy by relating to the patient and how to narrate a medical story from the patient’s perspective. In medical practice, the practitioner is required to put the patient’s needs ahead of his own to acquire a clear view of what the patient might be experiencing physically and emotionally. Rather than resulting in objectification, medical caregivers can exercise empathy to establish a connection with their patients. By doing so, they can help patients experience mental and emotional healing instead of focusing primarily on their physical wellbeing.
In contemporary medicine, both patients and physicians experience suffering, which negatively impacts treatment centered on the whole wellbeing of an individual. Patients complain that their doctors are not empathetic whereas doctors complain that their patients make unrealistic demands. Different medical schools deal with such issues in various manners such as offering training sessions on emotion-handling skills, interviewing skills and the importance of providing psychological care. There are three main models used to humanize medicine which are development model, acknowledgment model, and humanities model. Development and acknowledgment models focus primarily on the suffering of medical practitioners particularly trainees during their training period. The humanities model, however, focuses on the importance of offering treatment for the emotional and moral well-being of the patient rather than emphasizing sorely on diagnosis and medical therapies hence, draws attention to the patient’s experience.
The Doctor’s Visit by Anton Chekhov
The writer of this story also brings out the theme of empathy which is essential for medical humanity. The display of compassion by a medical practitioner creates a deeper connection between them and the patient thus making them relate beyond the professional borders. The daughter of Madame Lyalikov narrated to Dr. Korolyov how she felt she could pour herself to him when she first saw him. Korolyov was, therefore, empathetic towards her.
Furthermore, he agreed to spend the night at Madame Lyalikov’s house at her request at the expense of his plans because of his empathy for her and her daughter. By using the humanities model to evaluate Korolyov and Liza’s experience, it can be concluded that the doctor put Liza’s feelings before his and because of doing so, he found out that her illness was not just a physical experience but the main contributing factor was loneliness which led to fear. The humanities model allows physicians to hear the stories narrated by patients and comprehend their experiences of illness or wellness and then brainstorm on future treatment options.