Emotions
STEP 5: Addressing the patient's EMOTIONS with empathic responses
An empathic response consists of four steps:
- Observe any emotions on the part of the patient, e.g. tearfulness, silence or shock.
- Naming the emotion. If a patient appears sad but is silent, use open questions to acknowledge and identify the emotion.
- Identify the reason for the emotion.
- Give the patient a brief period of time to express his or her feelings.
How would you respond to these emotions? Click on the pictures to see the appropriate responses to the patient's emotion.
Crying
"I can see how upsetting this is to you."
Crying
Denial
"I was also hoping for a better result."
Denial
Anger
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this."
Anger
Frustration
"I can tell you weren't expecting to hear this."