Out of Hours Compassion or empathy? A way forward to reduce GP stress and burnout I have often heard from colleagues and ADDREss FOR CORREsPONDENCE felt myself the sense of psychological Manohar Thakur exhaustion when dealing with the Derby Open Access Centre, 207 St Thomas Road, particularly stressful life problems of our Normanton, Derby DE3 9BL, UK. patients. This is part of the ‘burnout’ so E-mail:
[email protected] often talked about in general practice. It is common experience that listening to the patient with empathy goes a long way In the light of this new research showing towards helping many of them: being the that compassion is a virtue that can be ‘drug doctor’ of Balint. Empathy, according passed on by training, it may be worth to the Oxford English Dictionary means: thinking of ways to train ourselves in techniques such as meditation, which will ‘... the ability to understand and share the Photo: The Mind and Life Institute. help not only our patients but ourselves feelings of another.’ as well. The Royal College of General Practitioners could play a guiding role in While this is obviously good for the to have been able to make a difference to exploring this dimension of GP training patient, the person at the giving end of this their lives and, rather than stressing me at the undergraduate, postgraduate, empathy can find themselves emotionally out, these formerly difficult patients have and professional levels. The Mind and drained and fatigued. This can be repeated become a source of professional, as well as Life Institute (http://www.mindandlife.