An Empathetic Ear

Empathy is the ability recognizes another person’s thoughts and feelings. It is the mental and emotional capacity to ‘be in their shoes’. Handel (2011) describes that psychologist distinguish three types of empathy: Cognitive empathy (knowing one’s thoughts and beliefs), Affective empathy (knowing one’s feelings and emotions), and Compassionate empathy (being attuned to feelings of others and being drive to alleviate their pain/suffering through kindness and charity). A highly commercialized method of banking off compassionate empathy would be off the commercials/infomercials of impoverished children in third world nations and plea for charity to support these groups of people.

Empathy in the nursing field is important to provide nurses the ability to advocate for the patient and/or their family. As a nurse, and healthcare professional, we acknowledge the different types of empathy when caring for clients. The hospital is a scary place that is filled with uncertainties and hopefulness; often clients require supports to cope. In which case, nurses lend an ear or refer their clients to appropriate resources, i.e. Social Worker for housing issues. The cry of pain by a patient may evoke a compassionate empathy as we ask if they would like pain medication to better help them manage their condition.

The role of empathy in society is extremely important. It is the difference between socially ostracizing someone and including them. The inability of individuals to build off relationships from empathy affects trust in a relationship and their own ability to respond to needs (Handel, 2011).

Source:

Handel, S. (2011). The role of empathy in our evolution. The Emotion Machine. Retrieved from http://www.theemotionmachine.com/empathy-and-evolution/