Page 30 - Christiana Care Focus February 2019

Extraordinary People | GOOD CATCH AWARDS
Committed reporting by the Endoscopy Suite nursing staff resulted in a systemwide safety alert regarding the significance of allergy verification and allergy bands, and safe practices to reduce the risk of patient harm associated with missing allergy bands. 
The Empathy Effect
Making time for empathy makes a difference for patients, caregivers
The concept that caregivers should treat every patient like a first degree relative is well-known in health care.
Empathy takes that a step farther — walking in shoes of others and seeing the world through their eyes, said Helen Riess, M.D., pioneer on empathy in health care and keynote speaker at The Christiana Care Way Awards in January. Dr. Riess is founder and chief scientific officer of Empathetics, Inc., and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Research shows that empathy — demonstrated through even nonverbal behaviors — reaps mutual benefits, including reducing stress and its negative effects, for patients and caregivers. Evidence shows that empathy improves patient satisfaction, team collaboration and clinical health outcomes, and reduces clinical burnout.
Yet empathetic care is on the decline, Dr. Riess said. In a survey, more than half of caregivers reported that they don’t have enough time to adequately show empathy with their patients, she said, and “empathy training is needed.”
The good news, as Dr. Riess found in her groundbreaking clinical research, is that empathy can be taught. She also demonstrated that patients recognize and appreciate empathy in their care.
“The experiences of others are mapped in our brains and even the emotional experiences of others connect to our brains,” she said, proving that empathy is a healing factor grounded in physiology.
Burnout, Dr. Riess said, is a phenomenon marked by depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and decreased effectiveness. Burnout is bad for caregivers, bad for patients, and bad for health care.
Empathy is a protective factor against burnout. In a culture of wellness, the benefits of empathy are often professional fulfillment, personal resilience and efficiency of practice.
She said that organizations can create empathy by encouraging autonomy, civility, togetherness, competence, positive emotions, psychological safety, fairness, group norms and meaning in work. Progress benefits patients and caregivers, Dr. Riess said. 
For more on how Christiana Care is creating a culture of wellness, visit christianacare.org/center-for-provider-wellbeing.
“Empathy training is needed.”
Helen Riess, M.D.
28 CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM