Abstract
BackgroundEmpathy has long been recognized as a fundamental part of the professionalism of doctors and is considered to be both necessary and beneficial to doctor-patient relationships, although empathy is notoriously difficult to define and measure. Previous research on empathy has mostly consisted of quantitative studies measuring and evaluating empathy levels in students or medical residents. The aim of our qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of empathy among medical interns in Sweden.MethodWe interviewed 16 medical interns, using semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to analyse the interviews.ResultsThe analysis led to the emergence of a main theme of empathy as being multifaceted and conflictual, consisting of descriptions (subthemes) of “being” and “doing”; of being uncontrollable and contextual; biased and situated and essential and conflictual. Since the components of empathy were also found to be interwoven, to provide a more holistic presentation of the results, we applied a socio-ecological model to the results inspired by Bronfenbrenner.ConclusionsWe concluded that empathy is situated and contextual. By using the socioecological model empathy can be described as a systemic interaction between doctor and patient. Based on this we propose a more holistic approach to empathy in medical education to better prepare students for clinical practice.
Highlights
Empathy has long been recognized as a fundamental part of the professionalism of doctors and is considered to be both necessary and beneficial to doctor-patient relationships, empathy is notoriously difficult to define and measure
We concluded that empathy is situated and contextual
By using the socioecological model empathy can be described as a systemic interaction between doctor and patient
Summary
Empathy has long been recognized as a fundamental part of the professionalism of doctors and is considered to be both necessary and beneficial to doctor-patient relationships, empathy is notoriously difficult to define and measure. Previous research on empathy has mostly consisted of quantitative studies measuring and evaluating empathy levels in students or medical residents. Empathy has long been recognized as a fundamental part of professionalism for doctors [1], considered to be both necessary and beneficial to the doctor-patient relationship [2]. Despite being a much explored and evaluated phenomenon, there is still a lack of consensus on the definition of empathy [7, 14, 15]. The neurobiological model of empathy includes activation of mirror neurons and complex neurobiological processes [16] In a more psychosocial model, empathy consists of three parts; (1) cognition – the ability to recognize and understand the patient’s emotion, (2) motivation – the motivation to communicate this understanding and (3)
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