Enhancing system empathy within a UK Emergency Department: A feasibility interprofessional priority setting exercise

ABSTRACT Background System-level barriers inhibit empathy in healthcare, and this can harm patients and practitioners. The barriers include burnout-inducing administrative workloads, burdensome protocols, lack of wellbeing spaces, un-empathic leadership, and not emphasising empathy as an institutional value. A workshop aimed at enhancing empathic systems was successfully delivered in Canada but has not been tested in the UK National Health Service (NHS) setting. Aim To test the feasibility of an empathic systems workshop within the UK NHS setting. Methods We conducted an interprofessional group of an emergency department (ED). We used a modified nominal group technique to prioritise actions to enhance empathy in the ED system. Satisfaction with the workshop and confidence that the workshop would lead to change were measured on a 10-point Likert scale. Results Twenty-eight participants representing the following stakeholder groups attended the workshop: leaders, consultants, nurses, security, and porters. The group agreed to generating a better wellbeing action plan and implementing an effective secondary triage system. Seventy-three percent (73%) rated their satisfaction with the workshop as 8 or higher out of ten, and 63% reported being confident that the workshop would lead to positive change. Limitations A doctors strike limited the range of stakeholders who were able to attend, and long-term follow up was not conducted. Conclusions Participants in a UK setting were satisfied with a previously developed system empathy workshop and reported being confident that it would lead to positive change. Participants were able to prioritise changes that would improve system empathy and were confident that the changes would be effective.