Compassion in medical practice: the students' perspectives

Abstract

Introduction: Compassion has been regarded as the virtues in medical practice. From theory to practice, contemporary medical training is usually deprived of the resources to facilitate students’ understanding. In this study, eight medical students who went through a mindful practice training workshop were interviewed. They shared their experiences in contemplating self-compassion and compassion, and their relevance to medical practice. Method: Individual interviews were conducted with eight MBBS2 students who completed a mindful practice training. Questions were asked to explore their practice experiences and how they relate these to the understanding of life and human suffering, including (1) experiences of the mindfulness practice and how they relate these experiences to themselves as a medical student and as a doctor in the future, (2) perceived capacity of being more compassionate towards oneself or others and (3) perception of compassion and medical practice. Findings: Four major themes were identified from the interviews. Under the theme “mindfulness and medical practice, students shared their views on compassion among medical students, compassion for others and the perceived possibility to bring compassion to medical practice. In general, students honored compassion as an essential quality in medical care. Yet, most of them find the mindfulness training not enough to explore the essence of compassion in the medical context, making it hardly possible to progress from the understanding of the concept to putting it into practice. Some believed compassion could be cultivated but not likely in the classroom teaching environment. Instead, they perceived life experiences, the presence of role models and the environment as the fundamental factors for the cultivation of compassion. Conclusion: The findings hinted the missing components in the medical training which the students honored as a quality of a good doctor. They can be taken as references on how to ensure compassionate medical practice should be addressed in the curriculum design.