Experiences of empathy training in healthcare: a systematic review of qualitative studies

Background: Systematic reviews of randomised trials demonstrate that empathy-training for healthcare students and professionals improves patient outcomes. However, qualitative studies exploring practitioner, student, and patient experiences of empathytraining have not been synthesised. Methods: Five databases were searched. We included qualitative or mixed method studies exploring (i) healthcare student or practitioner experiences of empathy-enhancing interventions, or (ii) patient experiences of being treated by someone who has undergone empathy training. We excluded studies that were not empathy-focused. We used the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool to assess quality of included studies. Thematic synthesis was used to integrate Findings: from included studies and to generate new insights from the synthesised data, going beyond the Findings: from individual studies. Findings: Our searchyielded 2,768 independent records. Twentyfour studies were included. We identified two clusters of themes. Firstly, themes related to practitioner trainee professionalism and wellbeing, where the main finding was participants’ experience of benefit arising from therapeutic empathy training. Secondly, themes related to the understanding and treatment of patients, where the main finding was a deeper recognition of the impact of empathic care. Discussion: This review identified that the act of taking part in empathy focused training can be beneficial for participant personal growth, as well as professional development, increased job satisfaction and benefiting patient care. This review is limited by the heterogeneity amongst included studies. These results can support a Rationale: for empathy training, whilst the development of a framework that will ensure training is having the desired effect.