ArticleBMC medical education2022
The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach.
Article in BMC medical education, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impact of Subdomains of Affective and Cognitive Empathy on Burnout Syndrome in Nurses: A Meta-Analysis.International nursing review · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of community engaged healthcare education on undergraduate students' empathy and their views towards social accountability; a mixed methods systematic review.BMC medical education · 2024Pooled it
- Implementation of Teach-Back method based on KWL strategy: a randomized controlled trial in medical caregiver retraining.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Nurse-parent communication and interaction during caregiving events in single-family room neonatal intensive care units.PEC innovation · 2026Article
- Empathy as Therapeutic Infrastructure in Wound Care: A Conceptual Synthesis.International wound journal · 2026Review
- Trainee experiences of a qualitative research training programme for young women in Kenya: a mixed methods study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- The surgeon's existential crisis: challenges and the threat to the profession.Updates in surgery · 2026Article
- Beyond Barriers: Reconsidering Cultural Sensitivity in Hospice and Palliative Care Services by Applying the Empathy Map.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Understanding the Boundaries of Empathy: A Qualitative Exploration in Pediatric Oncology Nursing.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Conceptualisation of Empathy in Interactions Between Healthcare Professionals and People With Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2026Article
- WiseMind: a knowledge-guided multi-agent framework for accurate and empathetic psychiatric diagnosis.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Assessing self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at a South African university.The Journal of chiropractic education · 2026Article
- Relationships among perceived stress, anxiety, and well-being in Chinese hospital staff: the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating role of empathy.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Residents' Communication Skills and Patient-Centered Care: An Eight- year Observational Study from Lebanon.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
- Virtual reality for experiential learning: enhancing agitation management skills, confidence, and empathy in healthcare students.Medical education online · 2025Article
- The relationship between sleep quality and emotional resilience in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a national cross-sectional study in Iraq.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- 'Finally, in Hands I Can Trust': Perspectives on Trust in Motor Neurone Disease Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of a Web-Based Virtual Simulation to Train Nursing Students in Suicide Risk Assessment: Randomized Controlled Investigation.JMIR serious games · 2025Article
- The Emotional Anatomy of Diagnosis: A Medical Humanities Approach to Empathy in Pathology.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Factors Influencing Emergency Empathy Towards Patients and Their Relatives: A National Survey Study in Türkiye.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHealthcare professionals' empathetic behaviors have been known to lead to higher satisfaction levels and produce better health outcomes for patients. However, empathy could decrease over time especially during training and clinical practice. This study explored factors that contributed to the development of empathy in the healthcare setting. Findings could be used to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of empathy training.
methodA qualitative approach, informed by aspects of grounded theory, was utilized to identify factors that enabled the development of empathy from the perspectives of doctors, nurses, allied healthcare workers and students. Twelve sessions of focus group discussions were conducted with 60 participants from two hospitals, a medical school, and a nursing school. Data was analyzed independently by three investigators who later corroborated to refine the codes, subthemes, and themes. Factors which influence the development of empathy were identified and categorized. This formed the basis of the creation of a tentative theory of empathy development for the healthcare setting.
resultsThe authors identified various personal (e.g. inherent characteristics, physiological and mental states, professional identity) and external (e.g. work environment, life experience, situational stressors) factors that affected the development of empathy. These could be further categorized into three groups based on the stability of their impact on the individuals' empathy state, contributed by high, medium, or low stability factors. Findings suggest empathy is more trait-like and stable in nature but is also susceptible to fluctuation depending on the circumstances faced by healthcare professionals. Interventions targeting medium and low stability factors could potentially promote the development of empathy in the clinical setting.
conclusionsUnderstanding factors that impact the development of empathy allows us to develop measures that could be implemented during training or at the workplace leading to improve the quality of care and higher clinical work satisfaction.
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