title: [Empathy-building of physicians. Part IV--development of skills enhancing capacity for empathy].
abstract: Communication and narrative skills development is considered as an essential prerequisite to acquire and exhibit empathic behavior in clinical context. Students' capacity for empathy can be also enhanced by their ability to control own emotion and stress level. Thus, educators have developed and implemented educational programs to improve students' interpersonal communication and narrative skills as well as stress management skills. The objective of this paper is to describe ways in which communication, narrative, and stress management skills are enhanced and developed in medical students. We also aim at showing the impact of different programs offered to students, on the students' level of empathy. We searched PubMed, ProQuest, ERIC, MedLine, and Polish Medical Bibliography--published from 1990 to the present--for studies that address issues of development of skills positively associated with empathy. Review of relevant papers reveals that students participating in those various forms of training have reported an increased sensitivity to patients' experiences associated with illness. Despite the fact that exposure to role models has been found an important factor for enhancing empathy, the studies show shortage of appropriate role models among medical school faculty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical History and Ethics, Pomeranian Medical University, Poland. ssliza@pum.edu.pl
authors.forename: Elzbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ziółkowska-Rudowicz
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kładna
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods