Can Compassion be Taught? Let’s Ask Our Students

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Medical educators act on the belief that students benefit from formal and informal educational experiences that foster virtues such as compassion, altruism, and respect for patients. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study is to examine fourth year medical students' perspectives on how, where, and by whom they believe the virtues associated with good physicianhood have been taught to them.DESIGN: Fourth year students were assigned a two-to three-page essay that asked them to reflect on how their medical education had "fostered and hindered" their conceptions of compassion, altruism, and respect for patients.PARTICIPANTS: All 112 students completed this assignment, and 52 (46%) gave us permission to use their essays for this study.APPROACH: An inductive, qualitative approach was used to develop themes derived from students' essays.RESULTS: Students' thoughts were organized around the idea of influences in three areas to which they consistently referred. Foundational influences included parents and "formative years," religious faith, and other experiences preceding medical school. Preclinical education influences comprised formal classroom experiences (both positive and negative effects). Clinical education influences included role modeling (both positive and negative) and the clinical environment (notable for emphasis on efficiency and conflicting cues). Students' essays drew most heavily on the effects of role modeling.DISCUSSION: Medical students arrive at our doors as thoughtful, compassionate people. Positive role models and activities to promote critical self-reflection may help nurture these attitudes.

Teaching professionalism in medical education: A Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) systematic review. BEME Guide No. 25

“…Qualitative methodology studies focused on students' perceptions of the quality of the teaching on professionalism they were exposed to (Hatem & Ferrara 2001;Lempp & Seale 2004;Nogueira-Martins et al 2006;Stephenson et al 2006;Wear & Zarconi 2008) and the quality of students' writing on professionalism (Hatem & Ferrara 2001;Wear & Zarconi 2008;Rabow et al 2009), as well as on medical teachers (Weissmann et al 2006), and heads of medical education programmes (Stephenson et al 2006). Wear and Zarconi (2008) found reasons for both dismay and hope in a study on student views of professionalism teaching.…”

Where We’re Headed: A New Wave of Scholarship on Educating Medical Professionalism

“…2 On a more positive note, Wear and Zarconi found important foundational influences on professional attitudes and behaviors in the lifeworlds of students prior to coming to medical school. 3 These studies raise some important questions. Is professionalism like a white coat that physicians put on at the beginning of the day and take off when they go home, or should it be a set of principles for physicians to use to guide their lives?…”

“…[3][4][5] All are based on reflection. Both HillSakurai and colleagues' longitudinal intersession-based third-year curriculum, and Fisher and colleagues' description of multiple institutions' internal medicine clerkship activities, contain a central component that includes written reflection on students' experiences and the meanings of those experiences for students' emerging professional identities.…”

Loneliness, Hopelessness, Anxiety and Self Compassion of Medical Students: Gazi Example

“…It is known that medical education attracts thoughtful and compassionate volunteers but in the process changes and shapes these students to become relatively less empathic and less sensitive due to various reasons (1)(2)(3)(4). Because being a good doctor means being kind, considerate and an honorable professional practitioner, from time to time medical profession needs to go back to its roots and remind doctors of the profession's humanistic values (5,6).…”