3. Be Empathic
Empathy is a basic skill physicians should develop to help
them recognize the indirectly expressed emotions of their
patients. Once recognized, these emotions need to be acknowledged
and further explored during the patient-physician
encounter. Further, physicians should not ignore or minimize
patient feelings with a redirected line of inquiry relentlessly
focused on “real” symptoms. Patient satisfaction is likely to be
enhanced by physicians who acknowledge patients’ expressed
emotions. Physicians who do this are less likely to be viewed
as uncaring by their patients