Lost in translation: a qualitative study of medical students’ experiences of theoretical and practical teaching of empathy

Abstract Background Empathy has proven to be a fundamental component in the patient-doctor relationship and correlates to several positive outcomes in patient care. Despite this, research suggests that empathy decreases during medical education. To increase the understanding of empathy development during medical education, this study explores medical students’ experiences of learning empathy in the transition from theoretical to practical context. Methods Eleven semi-structured interviews with students at a medical school in Sweden. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using grounded theory. Results The analysis resulted in three categories and a core category “Lost in translation”. Early on, students regard empathy as a valued and necessary skill. While students generally encounter high expectations of being empathic, they also met gendered expectations. There is a mismatch between the theoretical and the practical teaching of empathy. The core category refers both to the students feeling lost in their own professional development and empathy becoming lost in the translation from theory to clinical practice. Conclusion The results describe clashes between theory and clinical reality and the efforts of the students to develop and maintain empathy in this context. To encourage students to develop empathy it is necessary for both educators and practitioners to acknowledge, and attempt to bridge, the gap between the theoretical and the practical curriculum regarding empathy.