title: An explorative study of experiences of healthcare providers posing as simulated care receivers in a 'care-ethical' lab.
abstract: In recent approaches to ethics, the personal involvement of health care providers and their empathy are perceived as important elements of an overall ethical ability. Experiential working methods are used in ethics education to foster, inter alia, empathy. In 2008, the care-ethics lab 'sTimul' was founded in Flanders, Belgium, to provide training that focuses on improving care providers' ethical abilities through experiential working simulations. The curriculum of sTimul focuses on empathy sessions, aimed at care providers' empathic skills. The present study provides better insight into how experiential learning specifically targets the empathic abilities of care providers. Providing contrasting experiences that affect the care providers' self-reflection seems a crucial element in this study. Further research is needed to provide more insight into how empathy leads to long-term changes in behaviour.
authors.affiliation: sTimul: care-ethics lab, Sint-Maartensplein 13, Moorsele, Belgium. Linus.Vanlaere@med.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Linus
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vanlaere
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Timmermann
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gastmans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004645:Empathy; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000941:ethics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008503:Medical Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D016544:Patient Simulation; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012381:Role Playing