Scars OF EMPATHY The ABC’s Pulse and the Medical Drama
In her essay ‘The Empathy Exams’, Leslie Jamison writes of her experience as a medical actor; she is given a script and tasked with performing the role of a ‘standardised patient’ for a doctor-in-training. The aspiring doctors are rated on their performance using a checklist, with points awarded for recognising symptoms, picking up on particular behaviours and identifying potentially significant elements of family history. But what is ‘generally acknowledged as the most important’ trait or ability is item number 31: ‘Voiced empathy for my situation/problem.’
We are instructed about the importance of this first word, voiced. It’s not enough for someone to have a sympathetic manner or use a caring tone of voice. The students have to say the right words to get credit for compassion.
I spent a lot of 2017 in hospitals, in waiting rooms or lying on examination tables, as a result of my chronic illness. The scars of past poor hospital treatment sit with me as much as the marks from scalpels. When I first had surgery over ten years ago, the staff were so awful during my recovery that my very reasonable and kind mother went from pleading with to yelling at the nurses. Hospitals can be places of healing, but they can equally be places of pain and trauma and grief.
I learnt that year that, often, the most caring acts are small or unsaid. In the recovery bay after my most recent surgery, I asked to be helped from the bed so I could use the toilet.
