Transcending patient care by teaching providers compassionate care: A systematic review of current empathy enhancing interventions for medical students.
Date
2017
Authors
Summers, William Anthony Theodore
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Abstract
Introduction:
The expression of empathy by healthcare practitioners during patient encounters has previously demonstrated overall better outcomes, compliance with treatment choices and satisfaction for patients. Studies of medical student empathy have demonstrated a decline in the level of empathy expressed by some students at the start of their clerkship year. As such, investigators have examined the effects of a variety of empathy enhancing interventions to help mitigate this disconcerting loss. The following review will summarize current literature presenting empathy enhancing interventions on the basis of their efficacy and use in medical training curricula.
Methods:
Literary searches with PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE were performed to identify peer-reviewed articles that present some form of an empathy enhancing intervention studied on medical students, from Jan 1, 2010 to present.
Results:
Identified interventions for enhancing empathy include assigned readings, watching videos depicting patient encounters, debriefing or focus groups, simulated clinical interactions, reflection on video recording of student-patient interaction and simulating disease pathology, namely tattooed psoriasis. Of the interventions identified, only interaction with actual patients and simulated disease pathology were able to elicit significantly higher empathy rating scores with pre-post questionnaire comparisons. Four articles demonstrated significant results with the combined effects of several of the aforementioned interventions.
Conclusions:
Enhancing student empathy is best achieved through patient interaction, ideally with actual patients, though standardized patients have demonstrated utility. The synergistic effects of multiple interventions lend support to the use of standardized patients with the overall effect being capable of enhancing student empathy. The timely nature of these interventions should facilitate their incorporation into any Medical school curriculum, including Physician Assistant programs.
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Keywords
Empathy, Interventions, Medical Students, Physician Assistant