This is where empathy comes into play. Once you’ve assessed your own actions, empathy allows you to understand the other party’s emotions and situation to better understand why they reacted as they did. This may spur you to take responsibility for your own role in the situation.1
After completing these assessments, the individual can use the understanding they’ve gained to inform how they problem-solve and collaborate in the future, as well as better recognize and react to their own emotions going forward.
“It’s very much about intention,” Dr. Newsome says. “If we take intentional steps—examining our unconscious bias, considering how others view us and assessing how we view others—then caring becomes part of our daily routine. It becomes easy, and we become better at it.”
Relating to patients Patient empathy or “bedside manner” is one of the key skills any patient-facing physician must master—and it’s one that can be difficult to find time for in hectic schedules, unexpected problems and pressures of the system. In addition, communication barriers sometimes exist, either with language or conveying complex medical issues in a way a patient can comprehend. Being empathetic of cultural and socioeconomic differences can spur physicians to think more critically about how they approach patient care and interaction. “If you take the time to understand a patient, how they live and how other factors of their life can intersect with the disease process, you will have a better understanding of your patient than you could read in a file,” Dr. Newsome says.
Applying EQ can also help IRs problem- solve more effectively—perhaps by acknowledging their own barriers and seeking guidance from someone who may be able to better speak, communicate or empathize with a patient. For example, in FAQS in Interventional Radiology, Volume 6, John “J.T.” Thomas, MD, suggests seeking outside expertise in his pearl on uterine fibroid embolization (UFE).5
“If
you work with a nurse or tech who has had UFE, let them speak to your patients about their experience.”
22 IRQ | FALL 2020
"Every balloon has a burst rate. We can track the PSI and be prepared and work to make sure we don’t push the balloon past capacity—but it’s harder to check in and discover your own burst rate. Typically, we don’t
realize what it is until it’s too late." —Janice Newsome, MD, FSIR
Effective leadership One of the most crucial areas where EQ can play a role is in leadership. Many traits of successful leaders—mindfulness, patience, empathy, ability to collaborate— are also tied to EQ.6
“You have to learn to understand beyond words,” Dr. Newsome says. Emotional understanding is crucial for leading—a role that requires navigating disagreements or difficult discussions, providing professional support and utilizing both the strengths and weaknesses of team members.1,6
But according to Dr. Newsome, being a leader isn’t just managing your team’s emotions—it’s managing your own as well. “As a physician leader, your emotions guide your team. Your temperament on any given day will influence not just your partners, but the patients they see. You set the climate,” Dr. Newsome says. And it can sometimes be a burden to provide the calm, collaborative atmosphere that is crucial to encouraging employees and supporting their needs.
“I try to acknowledge the small stresses, because if I don’t and then bring them into work, it will build up,” Dr. Newsome says. “So I acknowledge them, set them aside and then tap into my own resilience.”
Preventing burnout For a long time, Dr. Newsome says, she didn’t know the term “burnout” was used outside of medicine, because it’s something so prevalent in the medical community.
According to the Medscape National Physician Burnout & Suicide Report 2020, 42% of physicians reported feeling burned out.7
Medscape defines burnout
as “long-term, unresolvable job-related stress that leads to exhaustion, cynicism, feelings of detachment from one’s job responsibilities and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment.”
Empathy and self-awareness are key to preventing these feelings, Dr. Newsome says. She likens IRs and their emotional capacity to the balloons that they work with. “Every balloon has a burst rate. We can track the PSI and be prepared and work to make sure we don’t push the balloon past capacity—but it’s harder to check in and discover your own burst rate. Typically, we don’t realize what it is until it’s too late.”
Being aware of your own emotions makes it easier to check in on yourself, to see how you are doing and take steps to protect your own well-being.8
A marketable skill Much has been said of the effectiveness of learning and implementing EQ in order to become a more collaborative and aware team member.9
The World
Economic Forum ranked EQ as one of the top ten skills needed in the workplace in 2020.10
Training programs
have been designed to teach individuals how to assess their EQ. Workplaces can hire consultants to assess their employees’ basic emotional regulation skills and provide courses to encourage improvement using hands-on, practical application examples.11
“It’s hard to reach folks who dismiss this as some kind of fad,” Dr. Newsome says. “And there are so many great IRs who care for their patients—but may not extend that care to themselves.” But for newly emerging IRs, Dr. Newsome says, it’s crucial they understand that this language of caring is becoming a prerequisite for their future jobs.
When asked to give references, Dr. Newsome says she is often asked not only about the candidate’s technical skills, but their emotional ones. “What kind of mood are they in? Do they collaborate well with others? Do they handle stress? How do they make their coworkers and patients feel? Are they capable of
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