During my ER shift, I had a patient who tested positive for Covid-19 and needed oxygen. As I guided him through the next steps of treatment, he lowered his head and shook his head, arguing that his diagnosis was impossible because “Covid is not real.”
After encountering a patient like this, it can be difficult to shake off the frustration and fatigue. Even more frightening, I often felt numb and apathetic. As someone dedicated to caring for others, it’s strange to realize that I don’t have endless compassion for my patients.
I almost feel guilty, but am I abnormal? Our team regularly conducts independent research on the perspectives of US clinicians, so I investigated. Turns out I’m not alone – I’m actually in the majority.Our data show that more than half of clinicians Admission They have been working hard to show empathy for eligible patients who refuse to be vaccinated.
This is not another article on clinician burnout. Rather, it’s about transference fatigue, a much more serious threat that plagues clinicians across the country. It often feels like an intensified form of emotional and physical exhaustion, wrapped in an overwhelming sense of sadness.
We have passed the grim milestone of more than 1 million Americans dying from Covid-19. Given this, I am concerned that it will be nearly impossible for my healthcare colleagues to treat patients objectively when they are suffering needlessly. It’s also impossible to deny the impact that empathy fatigue can have when we’re confronted with patients who deeply distrust our healthcare system.
Addressing empathy fatigue can be more challenging than generalized burnout. But there are things we can start to do now to confront this new threat to patient care head-on.
Provide clinicians with tools and training to address misinformation
Healthcare misinformation is nothing new. In medical school, I was taught how to share facts as clearly and objectively as possible. But Covid misinformation is a phenomenon no one was prepared for. No textbook, medical school lecture, or continuing education course taught me how to oxygenate patients who refused to believe their disease was real. How to even reach out to colleagues who are skeptical about vaccines. Our research found that four out of five clinicians deal with Covid and/or vaccine misinformation with their patients on a weekly basis. Nearly half deal with it every day.
We need more than a refresher course on how to best address misinformation — it should be a core competency for medical school professors, like bedside etiquette. Healthcare employers should provide clinicians with the tools and strategies they need to address testing room judgments and biases. We’ve all found our own makeshift solutions to try and deal with empathy fatigue, but these are just Band-Aid solutions.
Encouraging the next generation of clinicians to forge their own career paths
I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a doctor. But within a few years of my career, I ended up suddenly deviating from my intended path. In April 2020, my hospital had significantly reduced shift hours due to overwhelmed Covid-19 patients. I did something I never thought was a viable career option – to make ends meet, I turned to telehealth.
I was skeptical at first, but soon I learned that I could easily connect and treat patients through a computer or phone screen. Equally important, it saved me from the terrible early days of the pandemic, when there wasn’t enough personal protective equipment or even basic information about the virus. Now, two years later, telehealth has helped me create my dream career. I’m able to balance hospital shifts, which is important to me but often causes my empathy fatigue, and telehealth visits keep me empowered and engaged.
I hope future generations of clinicians understand that virtual practice can be a viable career path. We need to expand medical school training to include virtual nursing, as well as specific programs or scholarships for students interested in virtual or hybrid opportunities. With the clinician shortage expected to only get worse, doctors and nurses should feel empowered to follow the career path that best suits them.
Recognize the benefits of value-based care for clinicians and patients
While many conversations around the benefits of value-based care (VBC) have focused on patients—improving outcomes, reducing costs, and increasing patient satisfaction—we cannot ignore the benefits of clinicians moving to a VBC model.
While attending medical school in Canada, I was taught to focus on more than just treatments or medicines. Rather, it’s about talking to patients and listening to their stories — developing empathy for the patient. This holistic approach to care first attracted my interest in medicine.
But working in the emergency room, I rarely have time for each patient. Instead, my metrics are how many tests I order, how many procedures I perform, and how many patients I see per shift. How can we expect us to empathize with our patients if we don’t have time to approach them with compassion and care?
By restarting our motivational structures from the ground up, we can do more than just turn our attention to treatment outcomes. We can also give clinicians time to build relationships with their patients and start replenishing all the empathy we’ve lost over the past two years.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we were called heroes. Now, heroes are seeking help to tackle this new phenomenon of empathy fatigue. If we fail to ignore this compassion crisis, both patients and clinicians will continue to suffer. We will not be able to convince clinicians who left in droves to return to their mission. We will not be able to inspire the next generation of caregivers. And we will not be able to restore the lack of trust in our healthcare system.
Photo: SDI Productions, Getty Images
