With so many of us still self-isolating right now, as a society we’ve become a much more empathetic culture. We better appreciate the hard work of our essential services and front-line medical workers.
Today, more than ever we need to include empathy in our healthcare routine. May is Mental Health Awareness Month so we thought it would be a good time to highlight this practice.
Empathy is the ability to honestly understand and share the feelings of someone else. As healthcare workers, it’s something that not everyone does, but it can make a huge difference for your patients’ mental and physical recovery.
Validation
Adding empathy to your healthcare routine is critical to help validate the patients’ fears, concerns, and anxiety. It’s part of adding more than basic clinical care and it helps to advance humanism in your practice.
The medical community recognizes the unique relationship between mental and physical health. Often mental struggles can manifest as physical symptoms, so even if you treat the physical injury, it could reoccur if the mind is not treated as well.
Showing empathy for your patients
Even something as simple as genuinely saying “I hear you,” or “I understand your pain,” can go a long way to helping your patients. As part of your standard intake process, include questions to assess the patient’s mental well-being. This will help you to better treat the whole person, not just the physical symptoms.
A safe, comfortable night’s sleep will do wonders for your patients’ mental health. We carry several medical-grade mattresses for everybody and injury type. Check out our current premium care mattresses right now.
