The History of Empathy from SMACC GOLD

Gday

About six months ago I was at the SMACC GOLD conference in Queensland having a blast and rubbing shoulders with the great teachers of the FOAM family.  I was lucky enough to be asked to give a talk and really given free reign over the topic.  Which sounds like a good thing, but means that I had to think long and hard about what I really wanted to talk about.

I certainly feel a good measure of the “Imposter Syndrome” when I go to these amazing meetings and give my five cents as a rural generalist.  After all we specialise in knowing just enough to get by – so what can we add to such an amazing group of specialists.  So I chose a topic that I think we GPs know very well and one that I believe can solve many of the dilemmas facing the broader medical community.

Empathy. Yep – sounds like a really dull topic.  Very wishy-washy, touchy feely and far removed from the hardcore airway and resuscitation realm.  But I love a challenge – I wanted to have a crack at making empathy relevant to doctors in the coal face of critical care.  Putting it in terms that we can understand and integrate into our practice.  The challenge – to sell “empathy” to the super smart FOAM docs.

To put this into context – I was sitting in the audience for the opening ceremony where Dr Vic Brazil gave an awesome talk about the Tribes of Medicine – in which she discussed the troubles of intercollegiate empathy.  This was heartening to hear as I was up to speak a few hours later on some similar themes.  And then I saw that I was due to speak at the exact same time as the venerable Dr Cliff Reid – he was talking on Dogmalysis in Resuscitation.  Once again – another theme I wanted to explore – as dogma is an enemy of empathy.

So please have a listen to the podcast.  The audio is here:

NOTE for viewers :-  It is a very visual talk with lots of images.  So it works best if you listen and follow the slides below.

It is a complex and fascinating topic – one that I hope will be the start of a discussion about how we can do better in our moment-by-moment interactions with our patients, friends and colleagues.

I would really love to hear your thoughts and if you have any ideas or practical tips for us all.  How do you enhance your interactions with your patients and colleagues?

Let the conversation begin.

Casey

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