A penny for your thoughts: promoting compassionate medical practice through reflection

ABSTRACT

The fundamental importance of compassion in promoting high quality patient care is well recognised, but teaching compassion is no easy task for the medical educator. In this thought piece I will explore the journey I have taken with year 2 medical students, exploring how to make compassion matter to my learners, and how to translate reflection into compassionate practice. I will look at the role of medical humanities, and reflective writing in particular, in promoting compassion and empathy, and achieving a deeper understanding of what it means to practise in a truly patient-centred way. I will reflect on my own approach to teaching compassion and encouraging reflection, through role modelling, storytelling and involving patients as educators, and the successes and shortcomings that I have encountered in my teaching. I will then consider the next steps I plan to take as an educator in order to support my learners to become compassionate, reflective practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Compassion
• empathy
• professionalism
• reflective writing
• medical humanities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All of the patient names have been changed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kirsty Brownlie

Kirsty Brownlie is a GP in Bristol, UK, and a medical educator with the universities of Plymouth and Bristol.