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E-Zine Archives
Maintaining Empathy and Boundaries for Your Patients and Yourself
Posted on April 6, 2009 | Permalink
There are countless demands and expectations of nurses working in a contemporary medical environment. One of those expectations is to maintain an empathic-caring relationship with your patients while also managing time and tasks. While maintaining empathy can be a real challenge, it is not an impossible task.
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Empathy doesn’t need to be a time stealer
There are a number of simple but significant ways to express empathy while adhering to good time management; examples include the following: maintaining eye contact with a patient when possible (and when culturally appropriate); acknowledge and normalize a patient’s feelings, including feelings of anxiety and fear and frustration at being sick; helping a patient get needed resources that you aren’t able to provide.
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Boundaries
While boundaries are particularly important to implement due to short-staffing and a very demanding workload, empathy doesn’t need to be pushed to the back burner. Whenever possible instruct your patients as to what you can do along with ways the patient can participate in their own self-care. Also, framing questions skillfully can inform a patient that your time is finite. "Do you have a final question before I leave", is one such example. This type of question can sometimes help a patient prioritize their questions or requests so your time together can be productive and reassuring.
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Letting go
It is easier to maintain empathy when you are able to let go; when a nurse harbors resentment or feels guilty that she or he can’t meet a patient’s requests becomes a way to experience empathy as dangerous—a way to disappoint patients and set up unrealistic expectations. Deliver a message that will most likely disappoint a patient in an empathic way. Using phrases such as, "I understand that you would like" or "I see that you are disappointed", can help a patient feel heard and seen and may help a patient more readily accept this reality.
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Empathy towards yourself
As important as it is to maintain empathy for your patients, it is equally important to maintain empathy towards yourself. Forgive yourself for what you aren’t able to do and validate yourself for what you have been able to accomplish; these gestures are often linked to attaining job satisfaction. Relentless self-criticism and frustration about the constraints of your job is a recipe for burnout and compromised patient care. Always make a conscious effort to review what you did well—no matter how insignificant it may seem; it can make the difference in how you feel about yourself and your patients.
E-Zine Archives
- Medication Mix-Up: A Case Study (August 6, 2007)
- Always, always check out your assumptions about a patient’s well-being! (August 30, 2007)
- Communication with Patients: What a New Nurse Needs to Know! (October 10, 2007)
- Communication Skills: Leap and Bounce© (November 12, 2007)
- Poverty, Powerlessness and Healthcare (February 5, 2008)
- An Unresolved Conflict affects the Team (April 26, 2008)
- The Saga of my Fractured Meta-Carpal (August 9, 2008)
- The Nursing Shortage: Focus of PBS program, NOW (October 28, 2008)
- Is Nursing Really Recession-Proof? (February 21, 2009)
- Maintaining Empathy and Boundaries for Your Patients and Yourself (April 6, 2009)
- How Well Prepared are You for the Challenges Facing Nurses in the 21st Century? (October 27, 2009)