Empathy and well-being (courtesy Dr. Andrew McLean)

William Osler was a Canadian physician who is recognized as a giant of modern medicine. One of his contributions included an essay recited at a medical school commencement titled “Aequanimitas with other addresses to Medical Students, Nurses, and Practitioners of Medicine.” Within this treatise, Osler outlined the need for “imperturbability” and “equanimity,” essentially referring to being “cool, calm, and collected,” during all circumstances.

However, Osler was not implying that we bracket empathy when we care for patients. Quite the opposite.

Shanafelt and colleagues defined empathy as “the ability to listen to a patient, understand their perspective, sympathize with their experience, and express understanding, respect, and support.” Given faculty concerns that as students reach their clinical years their empathy begins to wane, accreditation bodies and institutions of healthcare training have focused on helping graduates better engage with patients empathically. Other research suggests that empathy is also protective against “othering,” a bias that occurs in healthcare and society.

To that end, Shanafelt’s study found that resident physicians with higher levels of well-being tend to be more empathetic. In other words, each of us can be better, more empathetic healthcare providers if we have a better sense of personal well-being.

So how can you maintain/enhance your empathy?

• Be curious
• Use Active Listening skills
• Be aware of your own predispositions
• And be diligent about your own well-being

Hannah Arendt, one of the most important historians and philosophers of the 20th century, wrote, “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

Whether or not be that’s literally true, all of us health providers should consider how we can better cultivate empathy and foster well-being for the good of our patients, ourselves, our profession, and our society.