Healthcare

The ability to read and manage emotions is an important skill for any health professional and would potentially enhance patient-centered care..

Heathcare centers can be a place of great stress. Doctors, nurses and administrators deal with human life and the emotions can run high among themselves and also with the patient and their families. In healthcare settings they face a unique challenge in providing patient services while also managing typical workplace situations and stressors.

Emotional Intelligence is one skill which is increasingly referred to as having a significant role in coping up with these challenges. It has been brought out in studies that assessing and discriminating patient’s emotions could have an impact on the quality and accuracy of history taking and diagnosis. Empathy of the medical staff with the patient has a positive impact on the doctor patient relationship, builds the confidence of the patients, increases the adherence to the treatment regime resulting in better outcomes. Many healthcare systems around the world are emphasizing the need for more patient centered care. However, health care professionals vary in their ability to achieve an understanding of the patient perspective and provide patient centered care.

The ability to read and manage emotions is an important skill for any health professional and would potentially enhance patient-centered care and increase patient levels of satisfaction . It will also help in addressing the specific aspects of doctor patient relationship that may not be working well.