Empathy In Nursing

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Empathy is feeling with people, empathy also fuels burnout for nurses. That is the connection I made while watching this video. Empathy should be reserved for the people that are close to you. The ones whose lives you would heavily grieve if you lost. Empathy is feeling pain and suffering because you care so much about someone, that what affects them, is also affecting you. A good nurse can separate her own feelings from the task at hand. That task is making the patient feel heard and understood through therapeutic communication. When a nurse allows themselves to actually feel the pain, suffering, and loss, which the patients and family are feeling every day, multiple times a day, then that will be mentally draining and lead to exhaustion, …show more content…
How do you tell someone you understand what they are feeling when you haven’t even been married? That’s why nurses are trained to rely on their communication skills, and not on empathy. Trying to be empathetic in a situation that you have never dealt with will just make the patient feel unheard and make them more upset. Through good communication skills you validate what they are feeling, tell them they are heard and understood, and offer support. That’s what a patient is looking for. They don’t care if you really feel what they are feeling because in their mind they are the only ones with those emotions. They just want to know that you are there for …show more content…
We just need to listen to what the patient is saying and offer support. Ultimately, at the end of the day we move onto the next patient, who is facing more emotional pain, and more suffering. That’s the harsh reality of nursing. If you can’t leave your feelings and emotions with the patient, because you truly feel empathy for them, then your personal life and clinical skill will become affected. Allowing for empathetic connections will make for a short lived nursing career and a hefty bill from your therapist. Who survives nursing school to end their career like