► “Empathy wanes over time”
Professor Daniel Bontouxmember of the Academy of Medicine
“Empathy seems to be a fairly widespread natural quality among young people who embark on medical studies. On the other hand, we note that this tends to diminish as the studies progress, because the curriculum becomes more and more technical and scientific. However, empathy is, according to all the opinions and all the publications on the subject, a major and necessary element for a quality patient-doctor relationship. It promotes both the well-being of the doctor, the diagnosis and the therapeutic follow-up of the patient. However, professional practice can put it to the test.
→ ANALYSIS. Narrative medicine, listening better to treat better
The great concern experienced by the medical profession is the lack of time. A consultation with general practitioners is seen as having to last fifteen minutes. However, the administrative tasks are always heavier and rely more and more on the doctor, which reduces his availability and his ability to listen. As a result, there is not enough time for the essential things that are the interrogation and the clinical examination. So how do you know what the patient has in mind? However, we know that patients, especially those with chronic illnesses, like to have the time to talk with their treating physician about things other than illness and medical topics. Unfortunately, all this is becoming more and more threatened. »
► “Understand the patient without being overwhelmed”
Lolita Mercadiedoctor in psychology, teacher at the medical university of Brest
“Empathy and so-called ‘relationship skills’ have long been overlooked in the training of medical students. In Brest, these lessons have been compulsory since 2013, from the second to the fifth year. They consist, among other things, of practical workshops around exercises and role-playing to activate the levers of empathy: listening, neutrality, non-judgment. The most difficult thing is to achieve a form of emotional flexibility: the doctor must be able to understand the feelings of his patient, share his point of view for a moment, but without allowing himself to be overwhelmed or putting himself in danger.
→ PORTRAIT. Rita Charon, the doctor who wanted to “read” her patients
Empathy should not turn into sympathy, in the primary sense of the term, which is the inability to distinguish between one’s own emotions and those of one’s patient. It is debilitating or even exhausting for the doctor and paradoxically, not necessarily reassuring for the patient. In a health system that does not help to cultivate empathy, quite the contrary, because you always have to do more with less time and resources, I often encourage hospital doctors to contact nursing auxiliaries, nurses, who are less in clinical reasoning and more in relational. The soil of empathy needs to be nurtured throughout one’s career. »