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Educating for empathy. A review.

Kathy A Stepien¹, Amy Baernstein

¹University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA.

Journal of General Internal Medicine

|May 18, 2006

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Effective strategies can enhance empathy in medical students. Communication skills training shows the most significant impact, though further research with larger sample sizes and validated tools is needed.

Area of Science:

Medical Education
Psychology
Healthcare Communication

Background:

Empathy is crucial for patient satisfaction, adherence, and outcomes.
The American Association of Medical Colleges identifies empathy as an essential learning objective.
Enhancing empathy in medical students is a key educational goal.

Purpose of the Study:

To identify effective strategies for improving empathy in undergraduate medical students.
To synthesize current evidence on empathy-enhancing interventions in medical education.

Main Methods:

Systematic literature search of PubMed for studies on empathy interventions in medical students.
Inclusion of 13 peer-reviewed qualitative and quantitative studies.
Keywords used: education, medical, undergraduate, student, and empathy.

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Main Results:

Various interventions can positively influence medical student empathy.
Communication skills workshops demonstrate the greatest quantitative effect on empathy.
Current research is limited by inconsistent definitions, small sample sizes, and varied measurement tools.

Conclusions:

Methodological limitations necessitate larger studies with validated instruments.
Further research is needed to determine optimal dimensions of empathy to target.
Evidence suggests empathy is a modifiable skill in medical training.