<p>The Long-Term Effectiveness of Empathic Interventions in Medical Education: A Systematic Review</p>

Abstract

The Association of American Medical Colleges recognizes that empathy is an important part of providing excellent patient care and lists empathy as a Core Entrustable Professional Attribute for physicians. This study is a review of the literature focusing on studies with an educational intervention to promote empathy and at least one year follow-up data. After reviewing the 4910 abstracts retrieved from PubMed, PsycInfo, Cochrane, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Embase; the coauthors selected 61 articles for full-text review and completed a medical education research study quality instrument (MERSQI) to ensure all selected studies scored at least 7 or above. Five studies from the US and seven international studies met our inclusion criteria and formed the basis for the study. Few longitudinal studies with a post-intervention follow-up exist to confirm or disprove the effectiveness and durability of empathy training. Of the published studies that do conduct long-term follow-up, study design and measures used to test empathy are inconsistent. Despite the high degree of heterogeneity, the overwhelming majority demonstrated declining empathy over time. Little evidence was identified to support the ability to augment the empathy of physician trainees in sustained fashion. A model is presented which explains the observed changes. Alternative solutions are proposed, including the selection of more prosocial candidates.

Craving Empathy: Studying the Sustained Impact of Empathy Training on Clinicians

“…[39][40][41] A systematic review challenged the idea of sustained improvement in empathy of medical trainees by educational interventions. 29 Our study showed that the overall mean empathy scores improved after the training and this trend was maintained at six months. Studies have shown that the participants with high initial empathy scores have the least longitudinal declines.…”

“… 42 Although not conclusively proven, the available evidence suggest that females have higher baseline scores, show greater susceptibility to increase in empathy from intervention and have slower/smaller decline in empathy over time as compared to male cohorts. 29 In our study, 70% of the participants were females which may influence our findings.…”

“… 28 A systematic review by Baugh et al that looked into the long-term effectiveness of empathic interventions in medical education found that empathy declined over time. 29 There is a paucity of evidence in the medical literature to support the idea that clinical empathy can be improved and sustained following educational interventions. We created a communication and empathy curriculum for practicing clinicians and studied its impact on a sustained improvement in provider empathy.…”

Educational Interventions to Improve Pharmacy Students’ Empathy Towards Geriatrics: A Systematic Review

“…The diversity and complexity of the reported pedagogical approaches are fascinating from the teaching point of view, but they make drawing firm conclusions difficult from a research point of view. A review on empathy reported that having repeated contacts with various degrees of intimacy is connected with having an inclusive attitude, which is supported by everyday examples of closeness and intimacy, not simply organized therapeutic activities (Baugh et al, 2020).…”

Empathy, quality of life and occupational burnout among medical students

“…1 Therefore, empathy is a cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship and is considered a principal competency for physicians; it also is a requirement for desired results in patient care. 2 Empathy is a complex and multidimensional concept that consists of cognitive and emotional aspects. 3 Published studies showed physicians' expression of empathy leads to many beneficial results, such as patient satisfaction, reducing patient anxiety and stress, more accurate medical diagnoses, better treatment outcomes, and improving patient quality of life.…”