Empathy

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AustinNative

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Firetender asked me to repost this, and it would be great to get other advice/opinion.

What has been worrying me about the Paramedic path, is that I might be too empathetic with the geriatric. I have been thinking about that one recently. How do you avoid the human feelings one has about your fellow man, especially the aged? I guess you become detached in time, but this is the one issue I wonder about. I know I will see the inside of many nursing homes and the private residences of the elderly.

Lucidresq had a nice reply, what do the rest of you think?

Thanks in advance.
 
Everyone is different. I personally have a very empathetic side for elderly patients (except the one that tried to bite me once...). I see nothing wrong with it. The way I see it, at their age, they DESERVE empathy and as much courtesy as you can possibly give them. As long as your empathy does not affect your clinical decisions, you will be fine. ^_^
 
You don't "avoid" the human feelings, you just don't let feelings, good or bad, interfere with you doing your job. Deal with the feelings at a later time, not when your patient needs you the most.
 
I remember a similar post to this a while back turned into a big argument over "professional detachment" and empathy and ended up getting locked.

With that being said, I am a believer in detaching myself from the more serious patients, I still care about them as much as the next person but I don't let myself become attached to said person anymore than I need to. It is not something I trained on per se so much as just how I am. I do believe empathy has a role in medicine it helps build that repoire and such. Some people will say it makes for a better treatment and the like but I am not religious as that will surely get tossed in here once or twice,
 
I'm with Linuss on this one. You kind of "take note" that underneath the problem-solving and technical intervention and management of the logistics of the call you often DO have a very human, and sometimes vulnerable experience, but there's work to be done first.

Most typically, the transfer is just a transfer, but sometimes... My vulnerabilities came out when I had repeat transfers where I couldn't avoid "getting to know" the patient and then having to release him or her into what I deemed a hell; feeling that I was becoming an agent of torture for the person. ...and then, sometimes they are a story that hits home. You never know.

But the trick is finding a safe place to honestly look at your experiences and face them so that then, you can let them go and move on. It is the suppression of the experience that drives you nuts, not the experience itself.

The dominant "culture" doesn't teach us very well how to approach this stuff with our peers so that we can speak honestly to each other. We're taught, by ingrained example, to deflect, minimize or deny the experience.

But let's face it, it's mostly about seeing our own future in the dying eyes of our patients. Most of us CAN deal with the idea of dying, it's the waiting around for it, going back and forth from nursing home to hospital under the control of some snot-nosed "kid" that scares the hell out of us.

...and then, there's the part about learning to connect honestly with the human being; therefore offering something back to the person rather than just taking on their pain.

If everyone learns to be honest in admitting such conflicts, then EVERYONE will have someone to turn to. I tghink we can learn to make space for ourselves and each other.

I wanted this to be a separate thread because I've been noticing a vein of hatred and disgust for IFT's running through the threads lately. Quite frankly it got scary because we'll all be watching many in MY generation (the Baby Boomers) soon being in the back of your rigs. Will you be able to look ME in the eye when I'm your patient, or will I be just a bag of bones needing to get from here to there?
 
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Linuss said:
You don't "avoid" the human feelings, you just don't let feelings, good or bad, interfere with you doing your job. Deal with the feelings at a later time, not when your patient needs you the most.
Click to expand...

I truly do understand what is being said here, but I can't help but ask when do feelings interfere with doing this job? I think for that matter the more in touch with your feelings and therefore those of your patient will enable you to perform better.

Good EMTs know the protocol.

Great EMTs understand the patient.

Just sayin'.
 
NYCWatchdog said:
I truly do understand what is being said here, but I can't help but ask when do feelings interfere with doing this job?

Just sayin'.
Click to expand...


A kid is raped. You start crying on the call.

You get called to a murder / suicide. You freak out on the call.

You get called to a mass shooting and you have the gunman as your patient. You refuse to do stuff.


Etc etc etc etc etc etc


Just sayin'.
 
I am pretty burnt out and find I often don't care at all about pts I treat. It's not just the ones who most perceive as not being worthy, the ones shooting the guns, dealing the drugs etc. Just everyone.

But I have respect for my position. I can honestly say I try as hard as I can to do my job to the best of my ability, and certainly would not let someone suffer if I could avoid it, down to little things like being pleasent and chatty, constantly adjusting someone, relieving their fears etc.

You can do a great job even if you have no empathy of any kind.
 
ive this talent to emotionally detach myself from any situation and not have a car in the world about it, but still coming across as caring to the patient.

it helps me not get emotionally involved at a scene. espicially with kids etc
 
You do not have to detatch but realise your have a single moment in time in which to show your empathetic and human qualities.

Can you help a year down the track when sometime else happens to your patients or even a minute after you have finished your interaction with them? The answer is no so realise that and work with that.

Well, hopefully they will go "oh wow what nice people the ambo's were" and go on feeling all fuzzy wuzzy about it but what they will more than likely say is "who was that strange fellow in the noisy helicopter and strange orange outfit?"
 
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