PERSON-CENTRED CARE AND THE ROLE OF EMPATHY ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

1. Introduction

The study on social psychology by Hodges and Myers has defined empathy as the understanding of experiences of another person by placing oneself in that situation (Cartabuke et al., 2017). Empathy is certainly important as it helps a person to understand the issues, dilemmas, and doubts of others thereby responding to a situation in the most appropriate way (Buchman & Henderson, 2019). This study is going to focus on a case scenario of a 5 years old boy, John Yousif, who has fallen off his parent’s bed. He has hurt his arm, but he hugs one of his parents and cries while someone is about to examine his arm.

2. Role of empathy in communication

According to Thompson (2018), communication plays the most vital role in developing relationships at the time of human interactions and empathy enhances the quality of communication as well as the relationships. So, empathy will play an important role to uphold an effective relationship while communicating with the patient (Meta, 2016). Moreover, the presence of empathy in interaction will allow me to understand the feelings, and emotion of John’s parents by observing the circumstances from their point of view, based on which I can share suggestions. Empathy is important in communication, or else I will fail to imagine myself in their positions and properly understand their current state of mind.

At the time of communicating with a child like John, the parents need to hear his words with patience and empathy from parents’ will help him to become more self-aware and he will speak what he actually needs (Stein-Parbury, 2017). When a child is not allowing anybody to look after his/her problem, the parents’ need to be empathetic enough to make them comfortable (Bry et al., 2016). This similar strategy should be applied for John Yousif as well because after getting hurt, he has trust in his parents only. Without empathy in communication, I cannot understand the problem and the parents will not be able to realise why John is behaving differently.

3. Strategy to convey empathy for the patient

The first criteria to maintain empathy in communication is to allow the other person to speak, and listen to his/her point of view persistently without interruption (Ratka, 2018). Çelik et al. (2016) have firmly stated that people from diverse age groups, socio-cultural backgrounds, and experiences commonly have different perspectives on a particular issue. In the case of John Yousif, I have to interact with both the patient and his parents to understand the problem because the patient is a 5-year-old boy. Now, the parents are quite worried and disturbed, so the best way to convey empathy for them is to let them explain their problem first rather than asking too many questions. At the very early stage of communication, I have to show my concern to the child and his health issue.

Cannity et al. (2021) have postulated that empathy allows a person to display particular behaviours that are socially accepted. John’s parents belong to Sudanese background and respect and resilience are core concepts of their culture. It is important to show complete respect to their culture and avoid making any indecent comment about their attitude towards the child. Rather, it is important to let them understand that their concern and fear are justified but they are worrying unnecessarily about what the doctors will think. Moreover, empathy can be conveyed by informing the parents about the importance of visiting a doctor especially for a 5-year-old boy, who is not aware of the consequences of the accident.

4. Other significant factors in a patient’s life

Heritage is one of the crucial factors, which is aligned by most of the Sudanese people with the concept of personal identity (Mansour et al., 2019). Although English is the official language, the trend of speaking in the local language is high, which is a problem for John’s parents also (Abdelhay et al., 2016). Here John is a child, only 5 years old, so his parents have that responsibility to convey the problem to a doctor or a general practitioner (GP) on behalf of their son. But they are not confident about their English and I think it is undoubtedly a significant factor, which is affecting their decision-making.

The involvement of a professional interpreter can listen to a message in one language and translate it to another thereby assisting to continue an effective communication (Gutman et al., 2018). Similarly, in the case of John, the involvement of an interpreter may minimise the fear and doubts of John’s parents as they can easily convey the problem to the doctor. Even John himself will also communicate if he can respond proactively.

5. Considering the support of surrounding people

Surrounding people or the people who belong to the same community tend to share experience and information about a similar issue that eventually helps to eradicate the issue (Clendon & Munns, 2018). The parents of John Yousif are worried about the injury of their child as well as the negative consequences of meeting doctors. Language diversity is certainly a barrier in communication but sometimes experience helps to manage situations (Arnold & Boggs, 2019). These parents also can involve someone from their community, who have experienced a similar kind of issue. While language is the main issue, they can also take help from someone from their community, who is living in Australia for a long time and can speak English confidently. It will also reduce the complications related to involving an interpreter externally.

6. Conclusion

It can be concluded that empathy is no doubt a significant factor that influences effective and meaningful communication. The problem of the Yousif family has become complicated because the boy is only 5 years old, so it demands complete involvement of the parents to mitigate the problem. Therefore, the challenge, in this case, is to interact with the parents being empathetic instead of communicating with the patient. A deep concern for cultural diversity is efficiently showcased in this study.

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