Practicing What We’re Taught: An Analysis of Pre-Clinical and Clinical Medical Education of Compassionate Care at Harvard Medical School

Abstract

In the Emergency Department, compassion in clinical practice is necessary not only to improve patient outcomes and physician satisfaction, but also to reduce suffering and its causes. The purpose of this study was to identify the concepts and skills related to compassionate care taught to students in the pre-clinical courses at Harvard Medical School, and to compare this with actual training opportunities in the clinical setting. This study utilized qualitative methods of content analysis to extract themes related to compassionate care from online resources of the empathy-focused classes taught in the pre-clinical portion of the New Integrated Curriculum at Harvard Medical School. These themes were then further explored by surveying students on their experiences in the third and fourth years at Harvard Medical School. Student evaluations of their education on discharge planning (p=0.01), communication between specialties (p=0.04), and working within interdisciplinary teams (p=0.006) were significantly higher for clinical vs. pre-clinical education. Though limited by a small sample size, the other concepts and skills also trended towards a higher rating of the clinical education, suggesting that the medical culture is changing such that compassion and communication have become important skills on the wards.