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Nursing Diagnosis & Midwifery 2018
S e p t e m b e r 1 0 - 1 1 , 2 0 1 8
P r a g u e , C z e c h R e p u b l i c
Page 31
Journal of Nursing and Health Studies
ISSN: 2574-2825
E u r o S c i C o n E v e n t o n
Nursing Diagnosis &
Midwifery
E
mpathy is a cognitive-affective response to the human need for affection.
It is a universal value accepted across human diversity. Patients seek
medical attention because they are sick and vulnerable. Patients expect a
level of commitment, compassion, communication for empowerment and
compassionate empathy from their physicians and caregivers. This paper
argues that Canada has effectively embraced empathy in the welcoming and
non-discriminatory healthcare policy. Canada attracts over 250,000 of the
world’s healthiest and brightest immigrants and more than 25,000 refugees
and others on humanitarian and compassionate grounds each year. Almost
50% of newcomers come from developing countries. Additionally, the Canadian
medical profession enjoys the world-renown status as being at the forefront
of medical education and training. Canada has one of the most advanced
government-funded systems with equal access to healthcare for everyone.
Research shows that within five years of arrival in Canada, newcomers start
to experience declined health. The doctor shortage continues to leave almost
five million people in Canada with no access to family doctors and timely care
while the assumption that foreign born educated immigrant medical doctors
are not the right fit to fill the doctor-shortage gap. There is a growing interest
by medical leaders in the profession to ensure accessible care to all patients
notwithstanding their cultural, religious or linguistic diversity, even if this
means translating services in different languages and hiring interpreters to
assist with patient-doctor communication. With the growing disruptions in the
world, Canada’s open doors to newcomers who are seeking better economic,
social and safety conditions, there is an urgent need to re-imagine better ways
to capitalize on foreign medical talents to care for the expanded diverse patient
population. We aim to discuss some possibilities for healthcare training with
empathy as central to humanity in the 21
st
century.
Biography
Cindy Sinclair has received her PhD in Social Justice Education,
MEd in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education and BA in
History and Fine Art History from the University of Toronto.
She has more than 20 year’s administrative and postgraduate
medical education experience. Her research focuses on
immigrant medical doctors (IMDs) who are not selected for
retraining programs towards medical recertification. She co-
founded the Immigrant Medical Doctors Forum to further
explore integration of IMDs in the Canadian medical system.
c.sinclair@utoronto.caRe-imagining healthcare delivery in the 21
st
century with
empathy as central to humanity
Cindy Sinclair
1
and Pius Gitonga Gervasioh
2
1
University of Toronto, Canada
2
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Cindy Sinclair et al., J Nurs Health Stud 2018 Volume: 3
DOI: 10.21767/2574-2825-C4-011