Book chapter
Compassion and Professional Formation
Medical Professionalism
01 Jan 2025
Abstract
Compassion means attunement to suffering in a way the brings greater comfort and ease to both patient and physician. Empathy registers the pain and distress of another person; by contrast, compassion is characterized by the heartwarming pleasure of caring, kindness, and human connection. Compassion can be recognized as a capacity to sustain empathy and be with suffering in ways that are openhearted and comforting. This chapter explores the psychological, neurobiological, and moral dimensions of compassion, and distinguishes the vicarious pain of empathy from the positive affective experience of compassion. It assesses compassion as central to fulfilling the mission of medicine, and antidotal to empathic distress and burnout. Finally, this chapter provides a conceptual and practical framework for developing and sustaining compassion throughout medical training and practice.
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Details
- Title
- Compassion and Professional Formation
- Creators
- Gia MerloThomas D. HarterSteven Rosenzweig - Drexel University, Emergency Medicine
- Publication Details
- Medical Professionalism
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- MD (Doctor of Medicine) Program; Emergency Medicine
- Other Identifier
- 991022032171004721