There is only one constant aspect of the healthcare industry: change. Predominantly, healthcare providers interact with new patients daily that all have a unalike perspective on the healthcare process. These providers must adjust to these inconsistencies daily which relies primarily on clinical experience, classroom learning and empathy. However, are our medical schools teaching an adequate amount of all these components? Generally, teaching clinical based empathy in medical, nursing and therapist schools is minimal which leaves new graduates on their own to “learn” clinical empathy. Consequently, empathy needs to be a central component in the schooling process for medical professionals. However, not just a sole class about empathy will prepare…show more content… For example the patients were not given a much of an opportunity to speak their opinions, the provider became defensive, expressed a sense of superiority and used non layman terminology to describe a diagnosis. Nonetheless, this not only has an adverse effect on the patients, but it also affects the provider themselves. This theory is accurately depicted in “Like a Prayer” by Rafael Campo. Through this personal memoir by Campo, a physician, he constantly exudes his irritation about working with patients who have contracted AIDS, which ultimately leads to an unempathetic attitude towards the patients’ and his colleagues. In turn, this lead to Campo developing a hatred towards his profession and life. Since Campo was taking his prestigious profession for granted and had a pessimistic attitude, it was clear that he was not providing anywhere near the best possible care for his struggling patients. However, by the end of the memoir he developed a strong sense of empathy which completely reversed his view on his profession and life (Campo). This ultimately further proves how implementing empathy based teaching in medical schools would increase patient interactions and the satisfaction for the…show more content… In short, clinical empathy is not a natural personality characteristic that you either have or do not have. Clinical empathy is learned by understanding how “to stand in a patient’s shoes and to convey an understanding of the patient’s situation as well as the desire to help” which translates to greater understanding between patients and healthcare providers (Boodman). Consequently, there have been studies that directly link healthcare providers with a greater sense of empathy to decreased work exhaustion, malpractice cases and heightened patient-healthcare provider interactions. For this reason there are some notable medical schools that have begun to implement empathy courses into their curriculum: Jefferson Medical School and Columbia University School of Medicine. These courses focus on decreasing hostility towards patients, portraying superiority, making assumptions about patients feelings and body language. Essentially, this benefits both the patient and healthcare provider by providing communication between the two
