Abstract:

Medical humanities (MH) has been defined as “an interdis­ciplinary and increasingly international endeavor that draws on the creative and intellectual strengths of diverse disciplines including literature, art, creative writing, drama, film, music, philosophy, ethical decision making, anthropology, and histo­ry in pursuit of medical educational goals” [1] There is a great need of a “humane” doctor, with the understanding, assisted by interpretative ability and insight, and governed by ethical sensitivity, to apply this scientific evidence and skills to the individual patient.[2].

Empathy is a term difficult to define and it is said that in encompasses ethics, professionalism, communication skills and is much more and beyond these. Empathy describes the ability of the doctor to visualize and understand the patient’s suffering, pain and perspective and then communicate back to him with the aim of healing him [3,4]. Empathy is a better understanding of and alleviation of human suffering and therefore it has cognitive, psychomotor as well as an affective component. It is essentially a quality which helps doctors gain an insight into the quality of pain being experienced by the patient and doing something active to allay his pain and solve his problem.

References:

[1].American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Purpose of the ASBH. Available at: www.asbh.org/about/purpose.htm

[2].Costa, P., Magalhães, E. & Costa, M.J. A latent growth model suggests that empathy of medical students does not decline over time. Adv in Health SciEduc (2013) 18: 509. doi:10.1007/s10459-012-9390-z

[3].Downie RS, Macnaughton J. Clinical judgement: evidence in practice. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.

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[7].NunesP, Williams S, Sa B, Stevenson K. A study of empathy decline in students from five health disciplines during their first year of training. International Journal of Medical Education. 2011; 2:12-17. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

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