Abstract
RATIONALE: Empathy in healthcare benefits patients and practitioners, yet system-level barriers inhibit empathy. 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. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to test the feasibility of an empathic systems workshop within the UK. METHOD: We conducted an interprofessional workshop with stakeholders from an emergency department (ED). We used a modified nominal group technique to prioritise actions that enhance empathy in the ED. Satisfaction with the workshop and confidence that the workshop would lead to positive change were measured on a 10-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Twenty-eight participants representing the following stakeholder groups attended the workshop: medical consultants, nurses, and porters. The group agreed to generate an improved wellbeing plan and to implement an effective secondary triage system. Seventy-three percent (73%) rated their satisfaction with the workshop as eight or higher out of ten, and 63% reported being confident that the workshop would lead to improvements in system empathy. A doctor strike limited the range of stakeholders who were able to attend, and long-term follow up was not conducted. CONCLUSION: Participants in a UK setting were satisfied with a previously developed system empathy workshop, were able to prioritise changes that would improve system empathy, and were confident that the changes would be effective.