Anxiety reduction and emotional self-care using the U-technique in radiology departments

Daily clinical practice is an important source of stress and emotional exhaustion. In the health field, patients could experience a significant number of emotional reactions. There are high levels of anxiety in patients referred for medical imaging, and these levels are even higher in patients undergoing complicated diagnostic procedures. All this shows the need to understand that anxiety must be diagnosed and treated. This situation forces radiologist to develop emotional and social skills to resolve difficulties that may arise in the communicative act. In the patient-radiologist interaction, many elements have been analysed, being communication and communicative skills one of the most important elements. The objective is to present an emotional management tool, the U-technique. It consists of four movements: sympathize, empathize, feel the antidote emotion and spread the antidote emotion in order that the health professionals recognize their emotional state in each moment of the relationship with the patient.