Humanities as a tool for developing empathy in medical students

Abstract

Empathy is essential to a doctor’s competence; it affects the communication between a doctor and a patient. Therefore, medical students study humanitarian subjects: “Medical Ethics and Deontology, Professional Communications. Key Competencies”, “Ethics and Communication in Professional Activities”. Simulators, case methods, and VR are integrated to improve humanities teaching. Purpose: To analyse humanities disciplines in the development of empathy in students. Methodology: Comparative analysis to study the understanding of empathy, case studies, and observation of students’ learning. It was found that empathy decreases during the study, and it is necessary to ensure the teaching of humanities throughout the entire education. Moreover, modern pedagogical technologies “create” conditions for safe medical practice. The results can be taken into account when planning curricula.