From empathy to caring: defining the ideal approach to a healing relationship.
In recent years, "empathy" has been identified as a form of emotional engagement beneficial to patient care. Although usage varies, the term refers to sharing the feelings of another as a means of coming to a direct appreciation of the other. Defined this way, however, empathy may lead to mistaken assumptions and an absence of corrective curiosity: Once we think we understand what another is experiencing, we perceive less need to ask, listen, and learn. We propose the process of "caring" in place of "empathy" to embody the ideal emotional and behavioral approach to patient care. Caring refers to both an emotional reaction to another and the expression of that reaction in action, independent of the sharing of the other's emotion or experience. The expression of caring in the clinical context is close observation, precise listening, and responsive questioning, in concert with committed engagement and actions directly addressing the patient's problem, stripped of any assumptions about what the other might or might not be experiencing.
Weiner
Saul J
SJ
University of Illinois at Chicago and the Veterans Affairs Center for Management of ComplexChronic Care, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. sweiner@uic.edu
Auster
Simon
S
D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations