Patient care is a complex endeavor that involves largely the application of medical knowledge and communication skills. Medical literature has reported that the patient-physician relationship and the ability to communicate empathy have many benefits for health outcomes, physician well-being, and the community. Unfortunately, studies show that although reported empathy increases during the pre-clinical years, once a student enters the apprentice phase, those scores start to trend downward and continue to decrease during residency. Many hypotheses exist on why this attrition occurs and thereby provide a good starting point to create interventions. Our calling as medical educators is to foster an environment that teaches patient-centered care and arm our students with the ability to not only remain compassionate but ideally, increase their ability to respond empathetically.

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