Doctors need to understand patients feelings

Editor - Galloway's letter implies that it is impossible for doctors to empathise with their patients, and thus establish a satisfactory doctor-patient relationship, unless they have endured episodes of ill health similar to those experienced by the patient.¹ I do not believe that this is the case. If a shared bond of suffering is required for empathy then many doctor-patient relationships must be wholly inadequate, for very few practising doctors can have experienced devastating conditions such as AIDS or lung cancer. If Galloway's view of empathy is true, how could young medical staff ever adequately care for elderly patients?

It is true to say that many health professionals display a generic "sympathetic" approach to patients that is not truly empathy and that compromises professional relationships with patients by denying them their individuality. But this does not mean that empathy without shared experience is impossible. We can learn to understand patients' fears and needs by responding to them as individuals, taking time to listen to their concerns and not shying away from uncomfortable emotional issues. Striving to adopt a patient centred approach cannot allow us to understand how a patient is feeling, but it may enable us to appreciate accurately what they are feeling.

As the author of the article "What if it is cancer?" states,² pretending to understand how someone feels can be deeply insulting.

Alisdair McNeill, second year medical student, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9HG
Email: A.McNeill-2@sms.ed.ac.uk


studentBMJ 2000;08:175-216 June ISSN 0966-6494

1. Galloway G. Empathy needs to be more than superficial. studentBMJ 2000;8:167. (May.)
2. Anonymous. What if it is cancer? studentBMJ 2000;8:117. (April.)