Martha Conway: Empathy

My cousin, Martha Conway, is actively involved in Virginia Commonwealth University's clinical outreach and teaching, particularly through the Mobile Health and Wellness Program. Among her multiple duties is teaching nurses. When I asked her to tell me the most vital lesson she teaches her students, she didn't cite a technical skill. She didn't say the clinical rigors of medication administration, the dexterity required for IV placement, or the precision of wound care. Nothing like that. Her answer centered on a quality that is often treated as a given but is frequently the hardest to master: empathy. Then she told me how she teaches it. It wasn't obvious. It was genius.