A Better NHS
Originally
posted December 20, 2013
Here is an
excerpt:
If at one level
empathy can be demonstrated by a ‘banal social convention’ such as
acknowledging my patient’s suffering, at another, empathy
is inseparable from the moral obligation to care. When we say that
doctors and nurses lack empathy, at one level we might actually mean that they simply
lack basic courtesy and at another deeper level we mean that they don’t
actually care.
Perhaps
etiquette is a thinner version of empathy as ethicist Anna Smajdor, in an
excellent paper about the
limits of empathy in medical education and practice concludes.
She suggests that we should settle for teaching this stripped down version of
empathy. After all, it is clearly in short supply as any patient or health
professional will testify. Kate Granger’s experiences of being a patient
with cancer, led to her powerful call for healthcare professionals to introduce
themselves. #hellomynameis has
made a great and lasting impression.
