Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare

Intuition, recognized practice guidelines, and now empirical research have placed issues of the heart at the heart of effective healthcare. But what exactly are the practical consequences of neglecting these “softer” issues in clinical practice?

The Bad Press of Poor Behaviour

If you’ve watched the news lately, you likely have seen more and more health professionals and organisations come under heavy public scrutiny.

Despite any and all best intentions, this media exposure typically facilitates a downward spiral by demoralising doctors and staff. The chaos of quick fixes ends up driving bad behaviour and habits further into the shadows, rather than positively fixing them.

….With this in mind, how do we promote empathy and emotional intelligence in the work of healthcare professionals in every discipline?

And what could the barriers be to the development of these competencies?

Barriers to Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare

Before we start “bashing” healthcare professionals for having poor bedside manner, let us recognise that many healthcare providers are increasingly confronted with interpersonal and organisational challenges that place immense emotional and physical strain on their already stretched resources.

In the face of these huge challenges many healthcare professionals remain astoundingly attentive to the emotional/relational dimension of their services to patients and professional partnerships.

But under conditions of such high stress, and without adequate support, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the type of empathic relationships (with patients and colleagues) that will ensure the highest quality of patient care and clinical performance.

In the process of “surviving” the demands of any demanding work environment, we all tend to develop behaviours, thinking patterns, relationship styles that are our attempts to make best of limited resources and difficult challenges.

However, these inevitably self-preserving “survival strategies” can begin to undermine empathic and emotionally intelligent services.

In light of this, a limited level empathy in healthcare can be thought of as a “symptom” of a limited level of resources and support, both personal and organisational.

However, with adequate support, personal insight and practical EI resources, healthcare professionals will naturally begin to establish empathic and respectful human relationships.

The job of change agents within healthcare systems is therefore that of removing barriers to the expression of the inherent human potentials for mutuality, consideration and empathy.

Unblocking Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Practice

So how do we then remove these interpersonal and organisational barriers?

The answer is not straightforward since the scope of the barriers to this goal is complex and multi-faceted. Broadly stated however, a comprehensive change intervention must simultaneously address the individual and collective barriers that block the development of empathic provider-patient relationships.

EI Coaching – Beyond Individual Barriers

At an individual level healthcare professionals need to be supported and coached in becoming aware of the patterns of thinking, behaving and feeling that undermine productive and empathic relationships. The motivational paradigms orworldviews that underpin these personality patterns must also be understood in order for individuals to be coached towards more emotionally intelligent healthcare practices.

Also, as healthcare professionals become more aware of their emotions and personality style patterns, the impact of these patterns on team and organisational functioning (e.g. in multi-disciplinary teams) can be identified and moderated. The ideal context for this process is that of a coaching relationship where providers are given ongoing support, tools and insight in developing their EI competencies.

Emotional intelligence coaching for healthcare providers builds on the realisation that the key to greater productivity in the healthcare sector lies in developing the people in its people driven service. To put it simply:

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