Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2025

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Using reflective writing to enhance empathy among medical students
Muhammad Jawad Hashim1, Moien Ab Khan1, Alexander Kieu1,2
1Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain.
None:
Reflection is a skill which has the potential to enhance higher order thinking such as empathy and compassion. We aimed to study reflective writing as a means to nurture empathy among medical students. An interventional study was conducted among 73 final-year medical students using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered anonymously before and after a clinical clerkship. Reflective writing generated strong emotional responses but did not improve Empathy Questionnaire scores. Reflective writing about patient care experiences may be useful in clinical clerkships to develop certain constructs of empathy such as perspective taking and compassion among medical students, but it may not raise empathy scores in the short term.
Related Concept Videos
Empathy
Patient-centered Care
Techniques of Therapeutic Communication II: Focusing, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
This therapeutic technique can also be used when a patient brings up pertinent information during a health-related conversation. The...
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Cognitive Development During Adolescence
The Scientific Method

