Empathy Training Through Symptom Burden Simulation.

BACKGROUND: Providing quality care to hospice and palliative care patients requires the ability to feel and demonstrate empathic behaviors. To acquire a heightened level of empathy, the learner needs to internalize a process of experiencing first-hand real-life symptom burdens common at end of life. Making this happen during new employee orientation is a challenge but with powerful outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To increase empathy levels in hospice and palliative care staff within the agency.

METHODS: A mandatory class for all new employees and open sessions for existing employees in a hospice and palliative care setting. Subjecting participants to multiple disease process simulations.

RESULTS: All new employees participated in a symptom simulation workshop during their orientation.

CONCLUSIONS: Ninety-eight percent of the new employees found their experience in the workshop to dramatically positively affect their empathy levels and consequently formulate compassionate responses to patient situations based on their experiences of feeling empathy during the training.