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Open research questions in Empathy and Medical Education

253 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,422 Empathy and Medical Education papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The paper identifies a gap in exploring the importance of connectedness and resilience in mental distress through music. The song Everything I Wanted provides a unique perspective on the significance of connectedness and resilience.

    Connectedness and resilience in Billie Eilish’s Everything I Wanted – Psychiatry in music · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research is therefore needed to examine how yarigai among physicians develops and evolves. It will be important to explore how yarigai may emerge from a diverse and potentially shifting range of experiences, shaped by education, clinical practice, healthcare systems and technological change.

    Where Does Yarigai Come From? Meaning and Fulfilment in Medicine When Cure Is Limited · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of disability-conscious education in health professions training. The dominance of the medical model of disability in health professions education. The need for a more holistic and dynamic view of disability that accounts for the social, cultural, and legal aspects of disability.

    From disability competencies to disability consciousness: leveraging the health humanities to develop disability-focused health professions curricula · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to inform the design of future RbT performances, - Research should focus on developing transparent methodology for RbT in HPE

    The use of research-based theatre in health professions education: a scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of transparent methodology available to health professions researchers is a significant gap. Ambiguous terminology is also a challenge in the implementation of research-based theatre in health professions education.

    The use of research-based theatre in health professions education: a scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • Rwandan healthcare workers operate under tough conditions due to a shortage of healthcare workers, numerous patients, and scarce mental health facilities. Patients with trauma histories often experience suffering, which can lead to secondary traumatic stress and emotional exhaustion among healthcare professionals. The paper identifies the need for a disciplined form of narrative attention that considers emotion, meaning, silence, context, and the clinician's own responses.

    Integrating narrative medicine into post-genocide Rwandan healthcare: a call for trauma-responsive medical education · 2026 · DOI

  • Co-design, feasibility testing, trauma-safety evaluation, and empirical study are required to integrate narrative medicine into Rwandan medical education. Original, Rwanda-based research is ultimately required to support the integration of narrative medicine into health professions education.

    Integrating narrative medicine into post-genocide Rwandan healthcare: a call for trauma-responsive medical education · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how physicians find fulfilment in situations where cure is not possible. It highlights the need to reconsider assumptions embedded in medical education. The paper notes that the concept of 'yarigai' is not well understood in medical practice.

    Where Does Yarigai Come From? Meaning and Fulfilment in Medicine When Cure Is Limited · 2026 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Medical humanities are expected to strengthen humanistic values in future health professionals, including those in medicine, nursing, and public health, yet how students internalize such values across learning contexts is not fully understood.

    From motivation to meaning in medical humanities: a mixed-methods study of Chinese medical students’ value internalization · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on standardized approaches and long-term outcomes to clarify the most effective educational strategies.

    Emotional Empathy and Emotional Empathy Training for Medical Students: A Systematic Review · 2026 · DOI

  • However, these findings are limited to short-term, self-reported measures, and no behavioral or patient outcome data were collected.

    Effects of a brief aging simulation suit intervention on clinical empathy in healthcare professionals working in long-term care: a randomized controlled trial · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite its importance, the adaptive nature of empathy remains not fully understood, making it challenging for educational institutions to effectively teach it.

    Hierarchy hurts: a comparative cross-sectional analysis of empathy and its determinants in medical, midwifery, and nursing students · 2025 · DOI

  • The reason for this is unclear, and little is known about how surgeons manage emotions in clinical settings.

    Exploring how surgeons employ empathy in clinical practice: a qualitative study · 2025 · DOI

  • Management is not entirely automatic or subconscious, but opportunities can be created or limited by the surgeon as required to facilitate effective treatment.

    Exploring how surgeons employ empathy in clinical practice: a qualitative study · 2025 · DOI

  • Future multisite studies are warranted to identify the features of the educational environment that impact the trajectories of empathy during medical school.

    Trajectories of medical students’ empathy nowadays: a longitudinal study using a comprehensive framework of empathy · 2025 · DOI

  • Although previous studies have examined the efficacy of narrative medicine-based education in enhancing empathic responses to patients, the possibility of learning concept of "social suffering" through patient illness narrative remains underexplored.

    Learning about social suffering through illness narrative: possibilities and challenges · 2025 · DOI

  • Resilience has been proposed as one such factor, but the association between these two concepts is poorly understood.

    Synergy between resilience and empathy in health sciences students: a cross-sectional study · 2025 · DOI

  • In particular, focusing on ecological resilience may create the conditions for achieved empathy to be expressed, while strategies to mitigate the potential negative impact of adaptive resilience on empathy should be further explored.

    Synergy between resilience and empathy in health sciences students: a cross-sectional study · 2025 · DOI

  • Conclusions: Sound evidence is lacking for all the technical skills intended to be fostered.

    Effects of visual art observation on technical skills in novice healthcare learners: A scoping review · 2025 · DOI

  • It is still lacking a comprehensive evaluation of the existing articles on empathy's impact on medical students, despite the existence of many articles on the topic.

    The impact of empathy on medical students: an integrative review · 2024 · DOI

  • Final-year nursing students' perceptions of nursing humanistic education are under-investigated.

    Final-year nursing students’ perceptions of humanistic education in nursing: a cross-sectional descriptive study · 2024 · DOI

  • Despite its benefits, there is limited research on the impact of narrative medicine on empathy among obstetrics and gynecology residents.

    The impact of a narrative medicine program on obstetrics and gynecology residents’ empathy ability · 2024 · DOI

  • However, the association between empathy and engagement in artistic practice beyond the medical curricula remains unclear.

    The association between empathy and artistic practice: a cross-sectional study with medical students · 2024 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Despite an empathic doctor patient relationship being of utmost importance to improve health care outcomes, this aspect is scarcely explored in dental students of Pakistan.

    Empathy unmasked: the compassion quotient of dental students · 2024 · DOI

  • This phenomenon has not yet been studied in the context of nurses working in neuroscience.

    The Empathetic Involvement of Nurses in the Context of Neuroscience: A Mixed-Methods Study · 2024 · DOI

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253 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 2,422 Empathy and Medical Education papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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