Enhancing System Empathy Within a UK Emergency Department: A Feasibility Interprofessional Priority Setting Exercise.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Medical Education
• Patient Experience

Background:

• System-level barriers such as administrative workload and lack of wellbeing support hinder empathy in healthcare.
• A previously successful empathic systems workshop in Canada has not been evaluated in the UK National Health Service (NHS).

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of implementing an empathic systems workshop within a UK healthcare setting.

Main Methods:

• An interprofessional workshop was conducted with emergency department (ED) stakeholders.
• A modified nominal group technique was used to prioritize actions for enhancing empathy.
• Participant satisfaction and confidence in the workshop's impact were measured using a 10-point Likert scale.

Main Results:

• Twenty-eight participants, including consultants, nurses, and porters, attended the workshop.
• Key agreed-upon actions included developing an improved wellbeing plan and implementing an effective secondary triage system.
• 73% reported high satisfaction (≥8/10), and 63% were confident in the workshop's potential to improve system empathy.

Conclusions:

• The empathic systems workshop is feasible in a UK setting.
• Participants were satisfied with the workshop and successfully prioritized actionable changes.
• There is confidence that the implemented changes will enhance system empathy in the UK healthcare setting.