Insight from a novel humanities-based education intervention to teach empathy to internal medicine residents locally

Abstract

The medical humanities have the potential to develop empathy in junior doctors through perspective taking and critique of deep-seated beliefs. An education intervention to develop empathy was integrated into an internal medicine residency curriculum in Singapore. All junior residents currently in the programme were invited to participate in individual interviews after the humanities sessions. Data collected was analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. A total of three sessions were conducted over one year from April 2020. Two participants were recruited successfully for the study. A total of 4 interviews were completed and themes relating to the role of the humanities in empathy education, barriers to its implementation, and cynicism to the sessions were elicited. The results provided insight about how residents experienced a novel humanities-based postgraduate medical education program. However, the low recruitment is a major limitation in this study and data collected may not be confidently interpreted. There is still significant work needed to create greater awareness about the role of the humanities in medical education and research. Improvement in the pandemic situation may also improve participation in future studies.