Towards an empathic hidden curriculum in medical school: A roadmap

The “hidden curriculum” in medical school includes a stressful work environment, un‐empathic role models, and prioritisation of biomedical knowledge. It can provoke anxiety and cause medical students to adapt by becoming cynical, distanced and less empathic. Lower empathy, in turn, has been shown to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evaluation in clinical practice 2024-06, Vol.30 (4), p.525-532
Main Authors: Howick, Jeremy, Slavin, Daniel, Carr, Sue, Miall, Fiona, Ohri, Chandra, Ennion, Steve, Gay, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
communication
Curricula
Curriculum
Education, Medical - methods
Education, Medical - organization & administration
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Empathy
Humans
medical
Medical education
Medical students
Physician patient relationships
Physician-Patient Relations
schools
Schools, Medical - organization & administration
students
Students, Medical - psychology
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Summary:The “hidden curriculum” in medical school includes a stressful work environment, un‐empathic role models, and prioritisation of biomedical knowledge. It can provoke anxiety and cause medical students to adapt by becoming cynical, distanced and less empathic. Lower empathy, in turn, has been shown to harm patients as well as practitioners. Fortunately, evidence‐based interventions can counteract the empathy dampening effects of the hidden curriculum. These include early exposure to real patients, providing students with real‐world experiences, training role models, assessing empathy training, increasing the focus on the biopsychosocial model of disease, and enhanced wellbeing education. Here, we provide an overview of these interventions. Taken together, they can bring about an “empathic hidden curriculum” which can reverse the decline in medical student empathy.
ISSN:1356-1294
1365-2753
DOI:10.1111/jep.13966