Empathetic Doctor

     During his talk about Empathy, Dr. Decety brought up the fact that many medical students tend to become less empathetic as they progress through their schooling.  As an undergraduate hoping to one day become a doctor this is of interests to me.  So I found a related systematic research review by Neumann, Edelhauser, Tauschel, Fischer, Wirtz, Woopen, Haramati, and Scheffer that looked at empathy though a combination of longitudinal and cross sectional studies. Both Decety and Neumann et al. discuss the importance of physician empathy as a way to deliver more effective treatment and to create a better environment for healing.  Similarly to what Decety said, Neumann et al. analyzed evidence showing that medical school students tend to have a decrease in empathy.   The define that Neumann et al. used for physician empathy was the ability to understand the patient’s feelings, communicate understanding of those feelings, and to help the patient in a helpful way.

      Another finding highlighted in Neumann et al. is that decreases in empathy are correlated to specific types of medicine.  Branches of medicine that require more patient interaction correlate to higher empathy scores than branches like surgery, which require less patient-physician interaction.  This makes sense because people who go into more relationship based branches of medicine would probably do so because the like understanding other people and building relationships.  These trends in empathy scores also correspond to differences in moral decision-making.  It is important that something be done to foster empathy and moral decision-making in medical students so that they provide the best care possible to their patients.

     It is important that medical schools focus on building empathy in their students so that patients can get the best care possible.  Neumann and her colleagues highlighted evidence that suggests that in order for someone to build their empathic abilities they must do so not by studying the philosophy behind empathy, rather, by experiencing situations in which empathy is needed.  One possible way to do this is to require students to dedicate part of their week doing service work.  By requiring service, medical students would get the opportunity to practice empathy before they are put into a clinical setting.  In all empathy is a unique part of being human, and an important ability needed by doctors.

Outside article:  http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.8.0a/ovidweb.cgi?WebLinkFrameset=1&S=PLHOFPOGFNDDIDABNCPKBFIBLLDBAA00&returnUrl=ovidweb.cgi%3f%26Full%2bText%3dL%257cS.sh.18.19%257c0%257c00001888-201108000-00024%26S%3dPLHOFPOGFNDDIDABNCPKBFIBLLDBAA00&directlink=http%3a%2f%2fgraphics.tx.ovid.com%2fovftpdfs%2fFPDDNCIBBFABFN00%2ffs046%2fovft%2flive%2fgv023%2f00001888%2f00001888-201108000-00024.pdf&filename=Empathy+Decline+and+Its+Reasons%3a+A+Systematic+Review+of+Studies+With+Medical+Students+and+Residents.&pdf_key=FPDDNCIBBFABFN00&pdf_index=/fs046/ovft/live/gv023/00001888/00001888-201108000-00024