Empathy is one of the most crucial items in a health care provider’s toolkit.
When patients undergo treatment, they may feel anxious, overwhelmed or even terrified by the process. In some cases, prognoses are grim, which can lead to difficult and emotional conversations with patients.
Therefore, says Laura Burton, PhD, associate director of The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Rio Rancho Campus (HSRR), it’s important for all health care students to develop these empathy and communication skills during their education.
Burton’s expertise is in health communication and culture, and her research is focused on positive communication – especially within the context of recovery and the emergence of hope.
When patients have good empathetic interactions with their health care professional, they’re more likely to build trust and their visit satisfaction is increased.
“All of us have had experiences with health professionals, and some of them have been better than others,” she said. “The research shows, and our personal experiences show, that when patients have good empathetic interactions with their health care professional, they’re more likely to build trust and their visit satisfaction is increased.”
It doesn’t take that much more effort from the provider’s standpoint to make a patient feel heard, but those skills aren’t intuitive and have to be learned and continually practiced, she says.
“Developing empathetic engaged listening and communication skills is not naturally intuitive in our culture in general,” Burton says. “But learning to develop those is something that can make a huge difference in health care outcomes and in patients feeling positive about their health and their interaction with their providers. When we think about the importance of engaged empathetic mindful communication, it takes intentional practice and intentional learning.”
When Burton designed the Pre-Health Scholars Certificate – a program in its pilot year at the HSRR that helps students strengthen their UNM health professions program applications – the most important thing she wanted students to focus on was empathetic communication.
UNM Dental Hygiene students share tips with seniors at Broadmoor Senior Center during an event called The Importance of Dental Homecare.
“I want to help them become aware of and develop the skills around engaged empathetic listening and interactions,” she said. “It’s also so important to develop an awareness of and respect for cultural differences in people.”
Burton said some of the ways students across all UNM health programs are applying these newly acquired empathy skills are through outreach and community engagement events in Sandoval County.
“We’re starting to develop an initiative to utilize health care students from a wide range of the Health Sciences programs,” she said. “They’re interacting with seniors and providing education and screenings out in the community.”
The events are held at the two Rio Rancho senior centers – one of which, located at 3241 Broadmoor Blvd NE, is next to the HSRR.
The next event is a fall prevention session, hosted by Heather Ouellette, MD, at the Broadmoor Senior Center Friday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m.
“This helps students start to develop those skills and practice them in the real world,” Burton said. “There’s a lot of efforts to try to do some of those kinds of outreach, but intentional training is important and that’s something we’re trying to expand.”