Abstract
Empathy is a cornerstone of patient-centred care. However, empathy levels among health care professionals and medical students are currently suboptimal. An empathy map is a tool which aids in understanding another person's perspective. Empathy maps have up until now not been used in a medical education setting. To assess the attitudes towards, applicability and usefulness of empathy maps as part of medical student's communication skills training. Empathy map training was introduced to first-year medical student communication skills training at two UK-based medical schools. Twenty-eight participants in total agreed to be interviewed about their experiences using the empathy map, including sixteen students and twelve patient partners who assisted with communication skills training. Medical students and patient partners perceive value in empathy map training. Medical students stated that the empathy map training impacted on their views of empathy and patient-centredness by highlighting the importance of patient-centred care. Medical students and patient partners enjoyed the experience of completing the empathy map and had suggestions for how it could be improved in the future. Empathy maps could provide a cost-effective way to encourage empathic and patient-centred care in medical education. Furthermore, there is no reason why empathy maps would not aid in any caring profession. Further research is needed to confirm that empathy maps do increase empathy.
Highlights
Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is a fundamental aspect of patient care.[1]
To enable this we addressed the following research questions: The aim of this study was to understand the impact of using empathy maps within medical education
Patient partners and students had ideas as to how the empathy map training could be improved by adding instructions, defining the context of the map more clearly and additional empathy map sessions
Summary
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is a fundamental aspect of patient care.[1]. Objective: To assess the attitudes towards, applicability and usefulness of empathy maps as part of medical student’s communication skills training. Twenty-eight participants in total agreed to be interviewed about their experiences using the empathy map, including sixteen students and twelve patient partners who assisted with communication skills training. Results: Medical students and patient partners perceive value in empathy map training. Medical students stated that the empathy map training impacted on their views of empathy and patient-centredness by highlighting the importance of patient-centred care. Medical students and patient partners enjoyed the experience of completing the empathy map and had suggestions for how it could be improved in the future. Conclusions: Empathy maps could provide a cost-effective way to encourage empathic and patient-centred care in medical education. Further research is needed to confirm that empathy maps do increase empathy
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