Empathy as a Predictor of Doctor's Professional Success

Abstract

The professional competence of the dentist requires the presence and development of appropriate communication skills and the ability to create a warm psycho-emotional contact with the patient. Research by renowned academic psychologists, scientific work in the field of medicine, and finally life experience prove that a trusting doctor-patient relationship has a positive impact both on the treatment process and on the immediate results of the treatment. Patients who experience a state of psychological comfort with their doctor are much more comfortable with dental procedures for which they are already a priori nervous. Subconscious tension and fear of procedures makes the patient consciously or unconsciously resist the actions of the doctor, which creates discomfort for both the patient and the doctor, which in turn can have a negative impact on the quality of treatment. The purpose and objectives of the presented article were to study the concept of "empathy" on the basis of developed scientific research, to analyze domestic and foreign literature on the topic under study, to conduct an experiment on the method of identifying the level of empathy by V. V. Boyko among dentists working in the state dental clinics and private clinics of the city of Moscow. Materials and methods: To determine the effectiveness of using empathy in communication between dentists and patients, testing, questionnaires, interviews, observation and an experiment were conducted among 10 dental clinics. The test was based on the analysis of the level of empathy according to the methodology of V. V. Boyko. The results obtained showed that the indicative level of empathy in the studied group of dentists corresponds to the average, which can be explained by the complexity of doctors' work. Medical workers receive various psychological traumas in the course of their activity, and involuntarily witness negative situations. In order to distance themselves as much as possible from this and avoid emotional exhaustion, they need to pay attention to their own feelings and emotions and avoid becoming overly involved in the problem. Therefore, when interviewed, many dentists emphasized moderate empathy, considering it to be the most appropriate due to the intensity of the field of work. Moreover, it was revealed that the manifestation of empathy in medical workers has its own peculiarities, and the level of emergence of empathy channels according to the method of V.V. Boyko's method varies, which is connected with professional differentiation.