• Elzbieta Ziółkowska-Rudowicz and Aleksandra Kładna.
• Pomorski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Szczecinie, Zakład Historii Medycyny i Etyki Lekarskiej. ssliza@sci.pum.szczecin.pl
• Pol. Merkur. Lekarski. 2010 Oct 1; 29 (172): 282-6.

AbstractMedical training should aim at providing students' with opportunities to learn about and explore their cognitive and emotional responses to patients' illness and suffering. The training should also foster understanding of a patient's experiences and encourage empathic communication. Teaching approaches that use experiential learning methods seem to serve these educational goals, well. The objective of this paper was to describe experiential methods used in medical schools, in the early stages of training, to enhance empathy in students. The first two methods, patient navigator and home visits, expose students to a direct contact with a patient in the natural environment. Whereas, hospitalization experience and role playing involve simulation patient's experiences. We searched PubMed, ProQuest, ERIC, MedLine and Polish Medical Bibliography (Polska Bibliografia Lekarska--published from 1990 to the present--for studies that address methods for teaching empathy to medical students. Analysis of papers reporting the use of methods allowing early exposure to patient's situation indicate, that students reported a positive learning experience that has allowed to perceive patients as human beings, not as disease. The results show that, irrespective of the method used, empathy may be fostered in the course of medical training.

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