ArticleBMC medical ethics2016
Making space for empathy: supporting doctors in the emotional labour of clinical care.
Article in BMC medical ethics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 180 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Job Stress and Ethical Decision-Making Among Healthcare Workers in Post-Pandemic Infectious Disease Control.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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- Using the Chinese Version of the Screen for Disordered Eating to Assess Disordered Eating: Reliability, Validity and Correlates.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Coordinated empathy in attending general practitioners: an interpretive phenomenological approach to constructing a conceptual model of empathy.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Transforming self-experienced vulnerability into professional strength: a dialogical narrative analysis of medical students' reflective writing.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2024Article
- 'At Times it's Too Difficult, it is Too Traumatic, it's Too Much': The Emotion Work of Domestic Abuse Helpline Staff During Covid-19.Work, employment & society : a journal of the British Sociological Association · 2024Article
- Navigating Grief in the Realm of Patient Mortality: Insights from Trainee Doctors from a Tertiary Medical Hospital in India- A Qualitative Study.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2024Article
- Physicians' emotion awareness and emotion regulation training during medical education: a systematic scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Is it "all in the bag?" Multidisciplinary perspectives on ostomy surgery in pediatric IBD across the ImproveCareNow network.JPGN reports · 2024Article
- Mediating role of physician's empathy between physician's communication and patient's satisfaction.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- Comparison of empathy profiles of medical students at the start and in the advanced clinical phase of their training.GMS journal for medical education · 2024Article
- Unveiling the Role of the Work Environment in the Quality of Life of Menopausal Physicians and Nurses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Neurologists' lived experiences of communicating the diagnosis of a motor neurodegenerative condition: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.BMC neurology · 2023Article
- Subsequent pregnancy after stillbirth: a qualitative narrative analysis of Canadian families' experiences.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- The status of emotional labour and its influence on job burnout among village doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe academic and medical literature highlights the positive effects of empathy for patient care. Yet, very little attention has been given to the impact of the requirement for empathy on the physicians themselves and on their emotional wellbeing. DISCUSSION: The medical profession requires doctors to be both clinically competent and empathetic towards the patients. In practice, accommodating both requirements can be difficult for physicians. The image of the technically skilful, rational, and emotionally detached doctor dominates the profession, and inhibits physicians from engaging emotionally with their patients and their own feelings, which forms the basis for empathy. This inhibition has a negative impact not only on the patients but also on the physicians. The expression of emotions in medical practice is perceived as unprofessional and many doctors learn to supress and ignore their feelings. When facing stressful situations, these physicians are more likely to suffer from depression and burnout than those who engage with and reflect on their feelings. Physicians should be supported in their emotional work, which will help them develop empathy. Methods could include questionnaires that aid self-reflection, and discussion groups with peers and supervisors on emotional experiences. Yet, in order for these methods to work, the negative image associated with the expression of emotions should be questioned. Also, the work conditions of physicians should improve to allow them to make use of these tools. Empathy should not only be expected from doctors but should be actively promoted, assisted and cultivated in the medical profession.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.