The ability to communicate compassion — which entails both sympathizing with another person's pain or distress and desiring to alleviate it — is a critical skill for a health care provider. Richard Pinckney, M.D., M.P.H., University of Vermont (UVM) assistant professor of medicine, was recently named the 2009 Frymoyer Scholar in recognition of his proposal to develop and deliver a series of workshops to teach clinicians how to develop this skill.

In addition to practicing as an internist, Pinckney is actively involved in medical education, teaching several medical statistics courses in the graduate college, as well as teaching empathy, motivational interviewing, co-directing the Vermont Academic Detailing Program, and directing the Program in Wise Prescribing. He received the UVM College of Medicine's Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation in 2005.

"My formal study of compassion began about five years ago when I took a course on mindfulness — a psychological technique originally of Buddhist origin that is now being used widely to help people reduce stress and treat medical conditions such as chronic pain, anxiety, and depression," says Pinckney. "This training really sparked my interest to delve further into how mindfulness and other practices can further enhance our connection to patients and encourage a healing process."

According to Pinckney, it can be relatively easy to accomplish this connection in low-pressure situations, but often, such deterrents as time limits, competing responsibilities, patient emotions, and stigmatized conditions, such as substance abuse or chronic pain, may challenge clinicians' ability to maintain this connection with patients.

In Pinckney's proposed workshop series, clinicians will learn to be more compassionate over the course of an estimated eight-week program, during which they will seek to meet such learning objectives as: Be more mentally and emotionally present for patients; become more aware of one's own emotions and the patient's emotions during an encounter; empathize with the patient's experience; cultivate feelings of compassion for patient suffering; be aware of common barriers to compassion and methods to mitigate them; and use compassionate communication skills that will help alleviate patient suffering.

Pinckney, who joined the UVM/Fletcher Allen faculty in 1997, received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and served an internal medicine internship, residency and General Internal Medicine fellowship at the former Medical Center Hospital of Vermont and UVM. In 2000, he earned a Master's degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The Frymoyer Scholars program is an investment in outstanding medical education and promotes teaching that emphasizes the art of patient care. Scholars are selected based on the quality of their project proposal; the strength of the project's contribution to improvement of the relationship between clinician and patient; and evidence of commitment to clinical education, commitment to project and support of department/division program. The program is supported by The John and Nan Frymoyer Fund for Medical Education. Dr. Frymoyer served as dean of the UVM College of Medicine from 1991 to 1999 and also served as CEO of Fletcher Allen from 1995 to 1997. Mrs. Frymoyer is a former community health nurse and has a strong interest in patient advocacy. She serves on the UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences advisory board and helped plan and implement the Frymoyer Community Health Resource Center at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

For more information about the Frymoyer Scholars Program at UVM, call 802-656-0724.