What is empathy, and how can it be promoted during clinical clerkships?
Jochanan Benbassat,Reuben Baumal +1 more
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TLDR
S sustaining empathy and promoting medical professionalism among medical students may necessitate a change in the prevailing interviewing style in all clinical teaching settings, and a relocation of a larger proportion of clinical clerkships from the hospital setting to primary care clinics and chronic care, home care, and hospice facilities, where students can establish a continuing relationship with patients.Abstract:
The ability of medical students to empathize often declines as they progress through the curriculum. This suggests that there is a need to promote empathy toward patients during the clinical clerkships. In this article, the authors attempt to identify the patient interviewing style that facilitates empathy and some practice habits that interfere with it. The authors maintain that (1) empathy is a multistep process whereby the doctor's awareness of the patient's concerns produces a sequence of emotional engagement, compassion, and an urge to help the patient; and (2) the first step in this process--the detection of the patient's concerns--is a teachable skill. The authors suggest that this step is facilitated by (1) conducting a "patient-centered" interview, thereby creating an atmosphere that encourages patients to share their concerns, (2) enquiring further into these concerns, and (3) recording them in the section traditionally reserved for the patient's "chief complaint." Some practice habits may discourage patients from sharing their concerns, such as (1) writing up the history during patient interviewing, (2) focusing too early on the chief complaint, and (3) performing a complete system review. The authors conclude that sustaining empathy and promoting medical professionalism among medical students may necessitate a change in the prevailing interviewing style in all clinical teaching settings, and a relocation of a larger proportion of clinical clerkships from the hospital setting to primary care clinics and chronic care, home care, and hospice facilities, where students can establish a continuing relationship with patients.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Effectiveness of empathy in general practice: a systematic review
TL;DR: There is a good correlation between physician empathy and patient satisfaction and a direct positive relationship with strengthening patient enablement, and empathy lowers patients' anxiety and distress and delivers significantly better clinical outcomes.
Journal ArticleDOI
How Do Distress and Well-being Relate to Medical Student Empathy? A Multicenter Study
Matthew R. Thomas,Liselotte N. Dyrbye,Jefrey L. Huntington,Karen Lawson,Paul J. Novotny,Jeff A. Sloan,Tait D. Shanafelt +6 more
TL;DR: Both distress and well-being are related to medical student empathy, and efforts to reduce student distress should be part of broader efforts to promote student well- Being, which may enhance aspects of professionalism.
Journal ArticleDOI
Is there hardening of the heart during medical school
TL;DR: The findings suggest that undergraduate medical education may be a major determinant differentially affecting the vicarious empathy of students on the basis of gender and/or specialty choice.
Journal ArticleDOI
A cross-sectional measurement of medical student empathy.
Daniel C. R. Chen,Robert A. Lew,Robert A. Lew,Warren Y. Hershman,Jay D. Orlander,Jay D. Orlander +5 more
TL;DR: Empathy scores of students in the preclinical years were higher than in the clinical years, and efforts are needed to determine whether differences in empathy scores among the classes are cohort effects or represent changes occurring in the course of medical education.
Journal ArticleDOI
Educating for empathy
Kathy A. Stepien,Amy Baernstein +1 more
TL;DR: These studies indicate that empathy may be amenable to positive change with a range of interventional strategies, and larger studies using validated measurement tools are recommended.
References
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A Model of Empathic Communication in the Medical Interview
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Soliciting the Patient's Agenda: Have We Improved?
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