ArticleBMC medical education2021
A systematic scoping review of approaches to teaching and assessing empathy in medicine.
Article in BMC medical education, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Teaching cognitive and affective empathy in medicine: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Medical education online · 2025Pooled it
- Empathy training in healthcare: an umbrella review.BMC medical education · 2025Pooled it
- The effectiveness of Balint groups at improving empathy in medical and nursing education: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC medical education · 2024Pooled it
- Empathetic solicitude attenuates the affective and sensory dimensions of COPsychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness of empathy portfolios in developing professional identity formation in medical students: a randomized controlled trial.BMC medical education · 2024Trial
- Cross-cultural validation of the social empathy index: a psychometric study among Japanese medical students.Medical education online · 2026Article
- Process assessment of the attitude, ethics, and communication (AETCOM) sessions: student engagement and satisfaction among medical students in central India.BMC medical education · 2026Observational
- Neurophysiological mechanisms of embodied empathy in martial arts.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Future-oriented careers: what social and emotional capabilities do medical students need? A qualitative analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Residents' contribution to teaching at a Tunisian faculty of medicine.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Exploring aspects of medical students' professional identity through their reflective expressions.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Hierarchy hurts: a comparative cross-sectional analysis of empathy and its determinants in medical, midwifery, and nursing students.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- The influence of the hidden curriculum on the risk of burnout in junior doctors in a palliative medicine rotation - a qualitative exploratory study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Exploring the Impact of Professional Acting on Empathy Development in Medical Students.MedEdPublish (2016) · 2025Article
- Increase in self-reported empathy during medical school training: A longitudinal study.PloS one · 2025Article
- The employment of art therapy to develop empathy and foster wellbeing for junior doctors in a palliative medicine rotation - a qualitative exploratory study on acceptability.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Applying narrative medicine to prepare empathetic healthcare providers in undergraduate pharmacy education in Singapore: a mixed methods study.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Enhancing self-care education amongst medical students: a systematic scoping review.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Human-animal interaction and One Health: establishment and validation of the Brazilian version of the Animal Empathy Scale.Einstein (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmpathy is pivotal to effective clinical care. Yet, the art of nurturing and assessing empathy in medical schools is rarely consistent and poorly studied. To inform future design of programs aimed at nurturing empathy in medical students and doctors, a review is proposed.
methodsThis systematic scoping review (SSR) employs a novel approach called the Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA) to enhance the reproducibility and transparency of the process. This 6-stage SSR in SEBA involved three teams of independent researchers who reviewed eight bibliographic and grey literature databases and performed concurrent thematic and content analysis to evaluate the data.
resultsIn total, 24429 abstracts were identified, 1188 reviewed, and 136 included for analysis. Thematic and content analysis revealed five similar themes/categories. These comprised the 1) definition of empathy, 2) approaches to nurturing empathy, 3) methods to assessing empathy, 4) outcome measures, and 5) enablers/barriers to a successful curriculum.
conclusionsNurturing empathy in medicine occurs in stages, thus underlining the need for it to be integrated into a formal program built around a spiralled curriculum. We forward a framework built upon these stages and focus attention on effective assessments at each stage of the program. Tellingly, there is also a clear need to consider the link between nurturing empathy and one's professional identity formation. This foregrounds the need for more effective tools to assess empathy and to better understand their role in longitudinal and portfolio based learning programs.
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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.