Empathy Forms the Heart of Healthcare

First and only UK research centre to dedicate empathy to the heart of healthcare has set an urgent yet reforming need for patient care. Prof. Jeremy Howick will join this first center — The Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare, the University Of Leicester as a director this June to enhance patient satisfaction, and quality of life through empathic care.

The Stoneygate Trust is a charity established in 2007 by Sir Will and Lady Nadine Adderley, intending to support equal educational opportunities for all (including economically disadvantaged children and students).

“People go into the medical profession because they care about people, yet a lot of the time their motivation is forgotten amidst the need to memorise facts for exams and, after they qualify, filling out forms. Medical Schools have long-recognised the importance of communication skills, but this Centre will be pivotal in breaking down the perceived separation between good communication and the ‘objective’ knowledge of human bodies and what to prescribe them,” says Prof. Howick.

Unlike several harmful side effects of medical interventions, the side effects of empathy are reduced anxiety and improved sense of self-satisfaction in the practitioner’s careers.

The training is also planned to include inviting students to experience healthcare first-hand — for example, through spending the night as a patient — to extending and enhancing the use of expert patients and scenario-based learning with actors.

Source-Medindia