The Empathetic Attitude
Having an empathetic attitude can help with your empathetic listening and responding. Consider the points below to help yourself get into the empathetic attitude.
References
Tindall W, Beardsley R, Kimberlin C. Communication Skills in Pharmacy Practice. Baltimore, Maryland. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1994.
- You want to listen and try to understand people’s feelings and points of view.
- You are able to accept feelings as they exist without judgment.
- You are not afraid of the patient’s emotions and can bring yourself to listen to them and be open to their emotions.
- You can trust that patients can cope with their own feeling and problems and can trust that they can arrive at their own decisions.
- You believe that listening alone can often be the only help you can offer, knowing there is no easy solution to emotional concerns. This is defining “help” in a non-traditional sense.
- You can effectively convey to the person you have listened and understood their emotions. This is done by capturing the essence of the patient’s concerns and emotion through a reflection of their affective experience.
References
Tindall W, Beardsley R, Kimberlin C. Communication Skills in Pharmacy Practice. Baltimore, Maryland. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1994.