Academic health centers as healthy learning environments: Form follows function in promoting empathic care

Abstract

Empathy is a fundamental component of the Hippocratic doctor–patient experience. With ever increasing medical technologies, refinements in care delivery and venues for care, retaining empathy as a core competency for trainee clinicians is challenging. Additionally, the hierarchical health-care organization model of academic medicine that contributes to the trainee experience is dynamic and under strain. Time for patient care, time for self-care, and time to impart fundamental skills to trainees all compete for proper attention. Additionally, unprofessional behaviors, often due to provider burnout and lack of resilience, impede the ability to instill empathy in our trainees. This chapter will describe how the contemporary learning environment of academic health centers shapes the trainee’s experience and how the observation and teaching of human empathy can be preserved in such environments.