Fostering Human Connection: What it Feels Like to Receive Empathic Care

Chapter Four stresses the importance of human connection and what it feels like to receive empathic care. The Chapter begins with a personal story of how an ordinary woman made a positive difference in the lives of others. Caring traits that foster connection are explored, including practices that enhance the relationship between physician and patient. Offering empathy requires that a health professional resist the temptation to give advice, not assume that they understand, or try to rescue. They must also become aware of how another person’s suffering affects them and their responses. We learn that vulnerability is strength. Three narratives are presented and analyzed. In the first case, we hear what a counsellor did to show empathy in the midst of unbearable grief. In the second story, a doctor makes the time to listen to a patient when she so desperately needs to be heard. In the third story, we get a glimpse of how human connection was made possible when a dying hospitalized patient was alone and isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Case in Point, a hopeless young student shares how an empathetic nurse helped her choose life. In the section on something to ponder, the significance of being genuine and using silence is emphasized. A learning exercise is suggested at the end of the Chapter to discern between words and actions that demonstrate empathy and ones that do not.