In Supporting Healthcare Workers, a Little Empathy Goes a Long Way

Posted April 5, 2024
Impact Area HIV & TB

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

By Shawn Malone, Project Director, The Mpilo Project, PSI South Africa

At a glance, empathy can seem soft, weak, naive. It brings up questions like ’Why are you making excuses for bad behavior? Why are you ‘taking sides’ with people who behave badly? Why are you spending time on these silly niceties when there is real work to be done?’

But we’re finding empathy to be a powerful problem-solving tool in healthcare because it has the potential to take us beyond surface-level symptoms to root causes.

In the health sector we’ve heard a lot of judgment directed at men. For example, “Men are stubborn and apathetic about their health.” Well, not really. Many men feel alienated by the health system and anxious about HIV in particular. They need support and reassurance, not scolding and pressure.

Once we stop judging men, the temptation can be to judge nurses. For example, “These nurses are rude and uncaring. They’re driving people away.” Well, it’s not that simple. Many of them actually acknowledge falling short but also feel beaten down by a dysfunctional and under-resourced health system. They need support and encouragement more than auditing and enforcement.

If we can’t blame the nurses, maybe the problem is the district and facility managers! That’s an easy conclusion to draw until you come to understand that while those folks may have ‘manager’ in their title, they’re still toward the bottom of a very long chain of command and under constant pressure to reach ambitious targets with scarce resources.

A colleague recently shared a concept called wide-angle empathy—holding empathy for everybody in a given system rather than looking for ‘who is to blame.’ Everyone in the system faces challenges. Most are doing the best they can with what they know and what they have. If they’re not always performing as well as we’d like, the solution is to build them up rather than beat them up.

Under the Mpilo Project, we have spent the last two years designing and piloting a person-centered care model called Ngiyakuzwa (which translates to “I hear you” or more colloquially “I feel you” in isiZulu), based on the hypothesis that providers who feel supported will provide better support to clients.

By providing on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching, we’ve been helping healthcare providers develop greater empathy and insight, from recognizing a man’s true emotional state ‘behind the mask’ to understanding how they are perceived by patients. We’ve also been helping them strengthen communication skills, manage stress, improve teamwork, and feel recognized and appreciated.

When we reported on preliminary results and lessons, leaders in both health districts surprised us by suggesting that their own staff—managers, coordinators, trainers, etc.—would also benefit from support in these areas. In response, we organized two abbreviated workshops for district staff—hardly enough time to give them a taste of the model, but apparently enough for them to see the value in the approach, since the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

As we go along, we’re learning that the empathy-based approaches that have worked with men and then with nurses may actually work with everyone in the health system. The impulse to search for someone to blame, continually looking higher and higher up the chain, is likely misguided. Our hypothesis at this stage is that empathy needs to be for everyone.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led by Population Services International (PSI) in partnership with Ipsos, Matchboxology and the South African Department of Health, the Mpilo Project aims to increase linkage to HIV treatment and prevention among men in South Africa by designing, testing, and scaling interventions that are informed by an understanding of men’s barriers and needs.