The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts
Open accessAbstract
Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about another’s particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing one’s own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients’ verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact.
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Cites
Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.513 · Cited by 4,952
The biopsychosocial model 25 years later: principles, practice, and scientific inquiry
Borrell-Carrio, F. (2004) · The Annals of Family Medicine · doi:10.1370/afm.245 · Cited by 1,546
Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students
Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1023/a:1018700829825 · Cited by 1,493
The Effects of Physician Empathy on Patient Satisfaction and Compliance
Kim, S. S., Kaplowitz, S., & Johnston, M. V. (2004) · Evaluation & the Health Professions · doi:10.1177/0163278704267037 · Cited by 1,063
Communication Patterns of Primary Care Physicians
Roter, D. L. (1997) · JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association · doi:10.1001/jama.1997.03540280088045 · Cited by 939 · cited 1×
“Finally, we have increasing evidence that physicians who engage emotionally enjoy their work more over time, which likely contributes to providing better care.(6,17,114) Medical training absent explicit training in handling negative emotions can lead to the deterioration of empathy.”
BackgroundLaVeist, T. A., Nickerson, K. J., & Bowie, J. V. (2000) · Medical Care Research and Review · doi:10.1177/1077558700057001s07 · Cited by 918
Halpern, J. (2003) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.21017.x · Cited by 710
Self-citationMood Change and Empathy Decline Persist during Three Years of Internal Medicine Training
Bellini, L. M., & Shea, J. A. (2005) · Academic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00001888-200502000-00013 · Cited by 314
Squier, R. W. (1990) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/0277-9536(90)90188-x · Cited by 305
Cited by
“I'm Going Home”: Discharges Against Medical Advice
Alfandre, D. J. (2009) · Mayo Clinic Proceedings · doi:10.4065/84.3.255 · Cited by 326
In principle obstacles for empathic AI: why we can’t replace human empathy in healthcare
Montemayor, C., Halpern, J., & Fairweather, A. (2022) · AI & SOCIETY · doi:10.1007/s00146-021-01230-z · Cited by 293
Self-citationFrom idealized clinical empathy to empathic communication in medical care
Halpern, J. (2014) · Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s11019-013-9510-4 · Cited by 181
Self-citationAI and machine learning ethics, law, diversity, and global impact
Drabiak, K., Kyzer, S., Nemov, V., & El Naqa, I. (2023) · The British Journal of Radiology · doi:10.1259/bjr.20220934 · Cited by 84
Arik, C., Anat, R., & Arie, E. (2012) · Emergency Medicine International · doi:10.1155/2012/603215 · Cited by 12
Metadata
- Authors
- Halpern, J.
- Venue
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Published
- 2007-02-17
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 696-700
- ISSN
- 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-1497
- OpenAlex
- W2017287687
- Cited by
- 224
- References
- 9
- FWCI
- 4.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
