Patient Involvement to Promote Empathy in Preclinical Medical Students: Cross-Sectional Intervention Study

Despite increasing patient involvement in medical education, research has predominantly focused on involvement in small-group teaching. This study explored what it means to actively and meaningfully involve patients in large-group, lecture-based teaching while avoiding historical paternalistic approaches.

This study aimed to describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel curriculum component involving patients in early-year biomedical, clinical, and social science teaching to promote empathy in medical students.

A 6-step approach to curriculum development was applied to guide the design of this curriculum component, enhancing the existing curriculum by hosting real patients in lectures to add a genuine and authentic patient voice. The design process was supplemented by a coproduction workshop with patients, educators, and students. Patients were recruited to take part via local health care networks and the University of Leicester Patient and Carer Group. Nine modules in years 1 and 2 hosted patients in lectures across the 2023-2024 academic year. A student feedback questionnaire based on previous similar published studies was developed to assess engagement and achievement of learning outcomes.

First- and second-year students (N=604) attended mandatory biomedical, clinical, and social science lectures hosting patients throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. In total, 65.6% (396/604) of students completed feedback questionnaires at the end of the year. Most students (340/391, 87%) reported that including patients in lectures increased their feelings of empathy, and 77.5% (307/396) reported that their inclusion improved their engagement with learning.

The novel inclusion of real patients and their stories in biomedical, clinical, and social science lecture-based teaching has the potential to improve student learning and enhance feelings of empathy toward patients. Our findings are reproducible and transferable, and the intervention was well received by students.