Laughey, William F, Brown, Megan E L and Finn, Gabrielle M orcid.org/0000-0002-0419-694X (2020) 'I'm sorry to hear that'-Empathy and Empathic Dissonance:the Perspectives of PA Students. Medical Science Educator. ISSN 2156-8650
Abstract
Context: Our understanding of clinical empathy could be enhanced through qualitative research-research currently under-represented in the field. Physician associates within the UK undergo an intensive 2-year postgraduate medical education. As a new group of health professionals, they represent a fresh pair of eyes through which to examine clinical empathy, its nature and teaching. Methods: Working with a constructivist paradigm, utilising grounded theory methodology, researchers studied 19 purposively sampled physician associate students in two UK medical schools. One-to-one semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach. Results: The global themes were the pathways to empathy, empathy modifiers and empathic dissonance a novel term to describe the discomfort students experience when pressurised into making empathic statements they don't sincerely feel. Students preferred using non-verbal over verbal expressions of empathy. A conceptual model is proposed. The more substantial empathic pathway, affective empathy, involves input from the heart. An alternative empathy, more constrained, comes from the head: cognitive empathy was considered a solution to time pressure and emotional burden. Formal teaching establishes empathic dissonance, a problem which stems from over-reliance on the empathic statement as the means to deliver clinical empathy. Conclusions: This study furthers our understanding of the construct and teaching of empathy. It identifies empathic barriers, especially time pressure. It proposes a novel concept-empathic dissonance-a concept that challenges medical educationalists to reframe future empathy teaching.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2020. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Hull York Medical School (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 20 May 2020 08:10 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jan 2025 00:22 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-00979-0 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40670-020-00979-0 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:161005 |
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Filename: Laughey2020_Article_IMSorryToHearThatEmpathyAndEmp.pdf
Description: ‘I’m sorry to hear that’—Empathy and Empathic Dissonance: the Perspectives of PA Students
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