You can start by sitting so that you are near to and facing the patient. Use subtle body language cues to convey that you are listening intently. Set aside charts, computers, phones, alarms and pagers that may be distractions so that you can give your full attention to the patient and find the golden moments that reveal the patients true concerns or symptoms. But if you leap into these tasks without listening first, you may miss key information. There are many tasks that need to be completed during the visit-questions to ask, problems to analyze and solve-and you may feel pressured to dive right in.

Honor the first “golden moments.” The first few minutes of a clinical encounter are precious.

Once you have decided that connecting with empathy is the best way to approach the patient, follow these steps to improve that skill:

The AMA’s STEPS Forward™ collection of practice improvement strategies can help you become a better listener and get to the heart of your patients’ needs. Highly charged situations may arise in practice and those are the ideal times to use empathetic listening.

It can also forge deeper connections with patients that lead to greater professional satisfaction and joy in work for physicians.

Practicing empathy can save time and help physicians navigate difficult situations that arise in practice. Though it seems simple, empathetic listening requires understanding how to recognize the cues that patients offer. When physicians show true empathy while listening to their patients in the exam room, patients and their families are often more satisfied and more open to adopting their advice-and it builds a much stronger patient-physician relationship.

The quiet patient