Researchers from Duke University in Durham, N.C., found physicians can learn to be more expressive of empathy through interacting training tools, according to a Duke news release.
James A. Tulsky, MD, director of the Duke Center for Palliative Care and lead author of the study, said patients do not always consider their physicians as empathetic unless it is explicitly articulated. "It's not that the physicians are uncaring, it's just that communication needs to be taught and learned," Dr. Tulsky said in the release.
His team developed a computer program that contains the same content as multi-day empathy skill classes, which are time-consuming and can cost more than $3,000 per physician. Physicians can complete the computer program in their office or home in a little more than an hour for approximately $100.
The program teaches basic communication skills, including how to recognize and respond to opportunities in conversations when patients share a negative emotion, and how to share information about prognosis. Physicians also heard examples from their own clinic encounters, with feedback on how they could improve.
Oncologists who had not taken the course made no improvement in the way they responded to patients' concerns or fears. Physicians in the trained group, however, responded empathically twice as often as those who received no training.
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James A. Tulsky, MD, director of the Duke Center for Palliative Care and lead author of the study, said patients do not always consider their physicians as empathetic unless it is explicitly articulated. "It's not that the physicians are uncaring, it's just that communication needs to be taught and learned," Dr. Tulsky said in the release.
His team developed a computer program that contains the same content as multi-day empathy skill classes, which are time-consuming and can cost more than $3,000 per physician. Physicians can complete the computer program in their office or home in a little more than an hour for approximately $100.
The program teaches basic communication skills, including how to recognize and respond to opportunities in conversations when patients share a negative emotion, and how to share information about prognosis. Physicians also heard examples from their own clinic encounters, with feedback on how they could improve.
Oncologists who had not taken the course made no improvement in the way they responded to patients' concerns or fears. Physicians in the trained group, however, responded empathically twice as often as those who received no training.
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