Is empathy still important in today’s world?

Abstract

In our paper, we attempted to answer the question whether empathy is still important in today’s world. From the psychological point of view, two types of empathy can be distinguished, i.e. emotional empathy defined as the ability to sense other people’s mental states, and cognitive empathy, described as the ability to adopt the way of thinking of other people. Empathy is a very desirable feature among medical professionals, hence students are taught an empathetic approach to patients already from the early years of medical studies. Much is said about the positive impact of such behaviour on the cooperation between the doctor and the patient, as well as on the final treatment outcomes. We would like to draw attention to the role of empathy in the doctor–patient relationship and show how it affects professional burnout among healthcare workers (Bukowski et al., 2022; Decety, 2020; Esagian et al., 2019). The empathetic approach is especially important for patients with chronic conditions such as asthma. In China, a study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the level of empathy measured by a physician (using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy) on the physical and mental health of asthmatic patients. Patients were assessed for anxiety, self-reliance, sleep efficiency and levels of interleukin-6, an inflammatory marker at baseline and after 3 months. It was found that patients in the group treated by physicians with higher levels of empathy had significantly lower anxiety and interleukin-6 levels, as well as higher levels of independence and better sleep efficiency than the other patients (Wu et al., 2020). Intimate illnesses are also conditions requiring an empathic approach. One of the studies addressing this issue was conducted among HIV-infected patients in the US. The participants were asked to rate their satisfaction with the contact with the doctor who regularly followed them up for six months. The study found that patients’ satisfaction levels were higher if they considered their doctor to be empathetic and knowledgeable. The authors of the study also suggested that the doctor’s interpersonal and communication skills have a greater impact on patient satisfaction with the treatment process than technical skills (Sullivan et al., 2000). Women’s visits to the gynaecologist’s office is another noteworthy topic. As in the previous case, here too the situation concerns particularly sensitive issues. The patient should feel that she is an equal partner in the patient–doctor interaction, which will allow for controlling the embarrassment during both gynaecological examination and discussing difficult topics. In one of articles, 126 women enrolled for the study to complete a questionnaire on the quality of gynaecological examination and the relationship between the doctor and the patients (Gruszka et al., 2014). The questions concerned communication skills, attentive listening and conveying important information. Unfortunately, up to 41% of respondents reported the fact that they did not have time to share all their health concerns with the doctor, and over 50% claimed that the doctor did not ask them thoroughly about their health problems. We know that nowadays a growing number of patients are willing to participate in the treatment process. Patients increasingly expect partnership and subjective treatment from doctors, taking into account emotional aspects related to health and disease. The issue of proper, empathic treatment of patients is of particular importance in the practice of a gynaecologist. It helps break the barrier when exploring and discussing intimate topics of human life, which is important in the diagnostic and therapeutic process ( Synowiec-Piłat, 2003; Tymińska et al., 2018).