Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk View Post
Sad but true. I last got emotionally attached to a patient when I was at Medical School. I became distraught at the state of a demented lady who was constantly crying as she had no idea where she was or what was happening and wanted her dead mother / dead husband (unaware that both were dead of course). There are other, more recent cases that one thinks are terrible (sending a 85 year old lady home on Christmas eve who is unable to stand back to an empty house with no carers with diarrhoea, to think of one recent case) but due to repetition the effect lessens.

One can tell the newbies as they start wanting to connect with their patients. Give 'em a few months and they're all diseases rather than people.

Of course the general public doesn't want to know this and hence why in all medical programs all the staff are constantly getting emotionally involved with every last patient; similarly women like the idea of being with a Doctor as they're all caring people. I suppose after the "honeymoon" fantasy wears off they're still well paid and have a final salary pension.

So long as you can still fake it and are determined to cure the patient, I don't care that much.

Quote Originally Posted by InsaneApache View Post
No it's empathy. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone. Empathy is recognizing what they are going through and understanding the effect that has on the person.
Almost, sympathy is sharing someone's emotions, positive or negative.