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When: 22-24 April 2024
Where: College Court Conference Centre, Knighton Road, Leicester, LE2 3UF
Who is the course for: Leaders in healthcare education with an interest in developing, improving and delivering empathy-focussed training in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.

This innovative and pioneering training course provides clinicians, educators and academics with the skills needed to effectively teach empathy to healthcare students and practitioners. In addition, attendees will learn to support others to recognise the barriers and challenges to embedding empathy across the systems they work in, and to develop effective strategies for overcoming them.

Aims of the course

• Explore different educational models for teaching empathy.
• Identify and discuss issues of pedagogy, curriculum design, development and evaluation. 
• Enable the embedding of empathic healthcare education within your institution.
• Extend and advance participants’ existing critical appraisal and teaching skills.
• Develop understanding of the components of an effective curriculum for empathic practice.

What can I expect from the course?

• Keynotes from international leaders in empathic healthcare.
• Plenary sessions to discuss general issues in planning, executing, and evaluating of empathic healthcare education.
• Interactive small group sessions allowing participants to develop and test empathy training interventions relevant to their setting.
• Networking opportunities to encourage free discussion and the establishment of ongoing links.

Format

Most of the course will be conducted in small groups in which participants will develop and test their own ideas for empathy training. Plenary sessions will present and discuss general issues in planning, executing, and evaluating empathic healthcare education, and will demonstrate large-group strategies for teaching empathy. The course is interactive and attendees will be expected to participate actively in small group discussions. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own ideas for teaching empathic healthcare to take advantage of testing and expert feedback in simulated teaching scenarios.

Keynote speakers

Professor Jodi Halpern, University of California, Berkeley
Jodi is a leading thinker and speaker, consultant and researcher on empathy and leadership, AI ethics and mental health. She is author of the thought-provoking book ‘From detached concern to empathy: Humanizing medical practice’.

Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones, University of Technology, Sydney
Tracy is the founder and leader of The Empathy Initiative, and a world-leading nursing and healthcare researcher on the topics of empathy, patient-safety and clinical reasoning.

Professor Stewart Mercer, University of Edinburgh
Stewart is developer of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure and is recognised internationally for his research on multimorbidity, empathy, and the inverse care law.

Professor Jeremy Howick, Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare
A pioneering medical researcher in evidence-based medicine, placebo effects and empathy, Jeremy has founded several highly successful courses and research groups, including the Oxford Empathy Programme.

Materials and preparation

Participants will receive a workbook describing the evidence for empathic healthcare, and exemplars of how it is taught, together with key references. Prior preparation will be provided to enhance the experience of the course.

About Leicester

Leicester is a vibrant and unique city with plenty to offer for a day-out or longer stay. Find out more about events and activities in the area at Visit Leicester, Cool as Leicester and the University of Leicester webpages.

Accommodation

If you would like to stay in Leicester, we recommend College Court Conference Centre which offers comfortable and reasonably-priced accommodation. In addition, there are many other options in the local area, including independent hotels such as The Belmont Hotel, and larger chains such as Premier Inn.

Cost

The 3-day course costs £785 per person including attendance at the formal course dinner.

Securing a place on the course

Places are limited to just 40 participants to increase opportunities for interaction with leading experts, encourage personal development and to allow the co-production of bespoke implementation plans.

This course is now fully booked. If you would like to join the waitlist please contact us (empathy@leicester.ac.uk).

Continuing Professional Development

This course provides 18 hours of CPD.

Scholarships

We will offer three scholarships to cover the course fees for educators working in regions that are emerging, disadvantaged, and/or resource-constrained. There is an option on the application form to specify whether you wish to apply for this.

Contact us

• empathy@leicester.ac.uk 

Putting evidence-based empathy into practice

A one-day interactive workshop

8th October 2024, 9am-5pm

College Court Conference Centre, Leicester

About the workshop

An increasing amount of evidence suggests that empathy improves patient outcomes (including patient satisfaction) and practitioner well-being, yet the extent to which practitioners express empathy is variable. This workshop will cover the theory and practice of empathy in healthcare and facilitate the development of evidence-based ‘empathy habits’ to enhance empathy in clinical practice and their organisations.

Who is this workshop for?

Health care practitioners who want to further understand and develop empathic evidence-based practice, in order to improve patient care and reduce practitioner burnout.

By the end of the workshop, you will

• understand the latest evidence linking empathy with improved patient, practitioner, and system outcomes;

• develop useable (in the context of busy clinical practice) empathic verbal/ non-verbal communication (designed to improve patient outcomes as well as their well-being);

• become more committed to working with your practice/ organisation team to enhance empathy.

Workshop facilitators

The workshop will be led by Dr Andy Ward from the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare with the support of key members from the team.

What can I expect in the workshop?

• Keynote on the latest evidence around empathic healthcare

• Group work

• Patient stories

• Opportunity to role-play - practising key skills with feedback

• Action planning for your future practice

Cost

• Standard rate: £185 per person (Early Bird offer £155)

• Allied health professionals and doctors in training £120 per person (Early Bird offer £100) 

• Institutional rate: £100 per person*

*Members of the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH), the UK Council for Clinical Communication, the Royal College of General Practitioners, The Collaboration for Compassion in Healthcare Education (C4CHEd) and University of Leicester employees. If you would like your institution to be included, please email empathy@leicester.ac.uk. 

Bookings

Please go to our booking site to pay and secure your place. The Early Bird offer is available until 1st June 2024. The final booking deadline is 20th September 2024.

Feedback on previous editions of the course

“Most people talk about importance of empathy, but no one teaches what empathy is and how it’s done. This session today taught how to be empathetic and gave some valuable examples.”

“Really important points, delivered very well by an experienced doctor. I will definitely be taking some of these points into practice.”

“It was very interactive, fun, realistic. It gave me a good view on what to improve and develop in my skills.”

“Very interactive and opportunities to ask questions and share our own thoughts and experiences. We learn from our colleagues’ experiences as much as our own.”

About the workshop

Improve patient and staff satisfaction by 10-30% by creating empathic systems within your healthcare organisation.

Empathic healthcare:

• improves patient satisfaction with care while improving patient outcomes (including pain and quality of life)¹
• reduces practitioner burnout,^2,3 and
• reduces patient complaints.^4,5

To harness the benefits of empathy, training practitioners to improve behaviours is helpful,^1,6 but not sufficient. Asking busy healthcare practitioners^7,8 who are fearful of complaints^4,9 and treating increasingly dissatisfied patients¹⁰ to take time out to enhance their empathy is unlikely to have an effect. For empathy between patients and practitioners to thrive, “system-level” factors ranging from design and physical environment, friendliness of frontline staff, technology, patient education, empathy leadership training, and staff evaluation make a difference. Modifying just some of these factors has been shown to have a real impact.¹¹

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is aimed at organisations such as hospitals (or hospital wards) and Primary Care Networks (or individual GP surgeries). Leading representatives from all stakeholder groups within the organisation (including clinicians, managers, receptionists and domestic staff) are encouraged to attend, with a minimum of two representatives per practice required for the workshop to have its full impact.

This workshop will support your team to achieve:

• An empathy improvement action plan that is tailored to your individual healthcare setting
• Improved staff satisfaction, wellbeing, and retention
• Improved patient satisfaction and additional outcomes such as reduced pain and improved quality of life (to be determined based on specific needs of organisations)
• Reduced patient complaints

Themes

Innovation and your own challenges

Focussing on innovation and transformation, this intensive learning provides a unique opportunity for you to take time out to challenge, change and champion the way you think and work with others to improve your health and care system.

Peer guided applied learning at its best

Through our varied and highly interactive programme, this intense day will include a mix of presentations, case-studies, small discussion and working group sessions and coaching.

Delivery

With a focus on working in collaboration with your team, this one-day workshop proceeds in three stages, applying standard models of behaviour change and the nominal group technique:

1. Gain insights into existing evidence for the benefits of empathic healthcare and how this builds a case for improved empathic systems.
2. Explore the barriers and facilitators to empathy in the context of your healthcare setting.
3. Use the nominal group technique to develop priorities for your healthcare setting or team, committing to those which are achievable within 6 months.

Sessions will take place over one full day to allow you and your team to work through a barrier to empathy faced by your organisation. This is your chance to focus in, learn and get support. All participants will receive a certificate for completing the full day. Optional pre-course reading will be provided before the session. We also offer the opportunity for organisation leads to tailor the training to focus on specific needs. Please discuss directly with the Stoneygate Centre team.

Develop your knowledge in empathic care

We have brought together the latest evidence. thinking and expertise from across the world to enable an intensive learning experience. We will start with an introduction to the effects (including benefits and potential harms) of empathic care, and the need to go beyond empathy training for practitioners. Using a mix of presentations, discussion panels, practical case studies and activities, you will explore the current and future context for your organisation. Working through core topics such as transformational leadership, behavioural and communication sciences, and wider opportunities to influence decisions.

Experience facilitated discussion sessions and coaching from recognised experts

The day will be delivered in-person or online through facilitated live sessions, as well as individual and group activities. If you are joining as a team, you will get a choice to work together or separately with others to get a fresh perspective. There will be leaders, tutors, lecturers, and facilitators available to work alongside you.

Apply shared expertise and your own learning to your own situation

As a future transformational leader, you will also have an opportunity to explore leadership challenges, and engage directly with other leaders within your organisation. Exposure to different care settings and approaches will help challenge assumptions and traditional thinking in order to create a sustained impact.

Identify new solutions

This rich learning environment will provide a safe space to nurture and develop new ideas and solutions by actively working through the case scenario you bring along.

Workshop facilitators

The workshop will be led by Professor Jeremy Howick and include members of the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare. Professor Howick is the Director of the Centre for Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester, an award-winning teacher and researcher who aims to educate, inspire, and entertain.

Find out more about the Centre team

Cost

Details available on request.

Measuring impact

The impact will be measured in a tailored way that is likely to include before/after measures of:

• patient complaints;
• patient and staff satisfaction; and
• progress on achieving agreed priorities. 

Key references

1. Howick J, Moscrop A, Mebius A, et al. Effects of empathic and positive communication in healthcare consultations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J R Soc Med. Jan 1 2018:141076818769477. doi:10.1177/0141076818769477
2. Thirioux B, Birault F, Jaafari N. Empathy Is a Protective Factor of Burnout in Physicians: New Neuro-Phenomenological Hypotheses Regarding Empathy and Sympathy in Care Relationship. Frontiers in Psychology. May 26 2016. doi:10.3389/Fpsyg.2016.00763
3. Gleichgerrcht E, Decety J. Empathy in clinical practice: how individual dispositions, gender, and experience moderate empathic concern, burnout, and emotional distress in physicians. PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e61526. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061526
4. Moore PJ, Adler NE, Robertson PA. Medical malpractice: the effect of doctor-patient relations on medical patient perceptions and malpractice intentions. West J Med. Oct 2000;173(4):244-50
5. Street RL, Jr., Petrocelli JV, Amroze A, et al. How Communication "Failed" or "Saved the Day": Counterfactual Accounts of Medical Errors. J Patient Exp. Dec 2020;7(6):1247-1254. doi:10.1177/2374373520925270
6. Oxford Empathy Programme. University of Oxford. Accessed 16 March, 2018.
7. Rotenstein LS, Torre M, Ramos MA, et al. Prevalence of Burnout Among Physicians: A Systematic Review. JAMA. Sep 18 2018;320(11):1131-1150. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.12777
8. Dyrbye LN, West CP, Satele D, et al. Burnout among U.S. medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general U.S. population. Acad Med. Mar 2014;89(3):443-51. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000134
9. van Marum S, Verhoeven D, de Rooy D. The Barriers and Enhancers to Trust in a Just Culture in Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review. J Patient Saf. Oct 1 2022;18(7):e1067-e1075. doi:10.1097/PTS.0000000000001012
10. Wellings D, Appleby J. Public satisfaction with the NHS falls to a 25-year low. The King’s Fund. Accessed 26 January, 2023.
11. Kang ES, Di Genova T, Howick J, Gottesman R. Adding a dose of empathy to healthcare: What can healthcare systems do? J Eval Clin Pract. Jun 2022;28(3):475-482. doi:10.1111/jep.13664

Contact us and book a workshop

Email the team on empathy@leicester.ac.uk.

About the workshop

Improve patient and staff satisfaction by 10-30% by creating empathic systems within your healthcare organisation.

Empathic healthcare:

• improves patient satisfaction with care while improving patient outcomes (including pain and quality of life)¹
• reduces practitioner burnout,^2,3 and
• reduces patient complaints.^4,5

To harness the benefits of empathy, training practitioners to improve behaviours is helpful,^1,6 but not sufficient. Asking busy healthcare practitioners^7,8 who are fearful of complaints^4,9 and treating increasingly dissatisfied patients¹⁰ to take time out to enhance their empathy is unlikely to have an effect. For empathy between patients and practitioners to thrive, practitioners can enhance their empathy to each other.¹¹

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is aimed at organisations such as hospitals (or hospital wards) and Primary Care Networks (or individual GP surgeries). Leading representatives from all stakeholder groups within the organisation (including clinicians, managers, receptionists and domestic staff) are encouraged to attend, with a minimum of two representatives per practice required for the workshop to have its full impact.

This workshop will support your team to achieve:

• A “team empathy” improvement action plan that is tailored to your individual healthcare setting
• Improved staff satisfaction, wellbeing, and retention
• Improved patient satisfaction and additional outcomes such as reduced pain and improved quality of life (to be determined based on specific needs of organisations)
• Reduced patient complaints

Themes

Innovation and your own challenges

Focussing on innovation and transformation, this intensive learning provides a unique opportunity for you to take time out to challenge, change and champion the way you think and work with others to improve your health and care system.

Peer guided applied learning at its best

Through our varied and highly interactive programme, this intense day will include a mix of presentations, case-studies, small discussion and working group sessions and coaching. By the end of the workshop, participants will:

• understand the latest evidence linking empathy with improved patient, practitioner, and system outcomes;
• develop useable (in the context of busy clinical practice) empathic verbal / non-verbal communication (designed to improve patient outcomes as well as their well-being);
• become more committed to working with your practice/organisation team to enhance empathy.

Delivery

With a focus on working in collaboration with your team, this one-day workshop proceeds in three stages, applying standard models of behaviour change and the nominal group technique:

1. Gain insights into existing evidence for the benefits of empathic healthcare and how this builds a case for improved empathic systems.
2. Explore the barriers and facilitators to empathy in the context of your healthcare setting.
3. Use the nominal group technique to develop priorities for your healthcare setting or team, committing to those which are achievable within 6 months.

Sessions will take place over one full day and all participants will receive a certificate for completing the full day. Optional pre-course reading will be provided before the session. We also offer the opportunity for organisation leads to tailor the training to focus on specific needs. Please discuss directly with the Stoneygate Centre team.

Develop your knowledge in empathic care

We have brought together the latest evidence. thinking and expertise from across the world to enable an intensive learning experience. We will start with an introduction to the effects (including benefits and potential harms) of empathic care, and the need to go beyond empathy training for practitioners. Using a mix of presentations, discussion panels, practical case studies and activities, you will explore the current and future context for your organisation. Working through core topics such as transformational leadership, behavioural and communication sciences, and wider opportunities to influence decisions.

Experience facilitated discussion sessions and coaching from recognised experts

The day will be delivered in-person or online through facilitated live sessions, as well as individual and group activities. If you are joining as a team, you will get a choice to work together or separately with others to get a fresh perspective. There will be leaders, tutors, lecturers, and facilitators available to work alongside you.

Apply shared expertise and your own learning to your own situation

As a future transformational leader, you will also have an opportunity to explore leadership challenges, and engage directly with other leaders within your organisation. Exposure to different care settings and approaches will help challenge assumptions and traditional thinking in order to create a sustained impact.

Identify new solutions

This rich learning environment will provide a safe space to nurture and develop new ideas and solutions by actively working through the case scenario you bring along.

Workshop facilitators

The workshop will be led by Professor Jeremy Howick and include members of the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare. Professor Howick is the Director of the Centre for Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester, an award-winning teacher and researcher who aims to educate, inspire, and entertain.

Find out more about the Centre team

What happens in the workshop?

• Lecture by keynote speaker, designed to inform and motivate attendees to improve empathic care
• Brainstorming session in pairs (or small groups, depending on room layout) on barriers to empathy and how to remove them
• Description of evidence-based empathic behaviours
• Self-empathy (required to give empathy to others)
• Being empathic in difficult cases
• Changing organisations (and beyond)

Cost

Details available on request.

Key references

1. Howick J, Moscrop A, Mebius A, et al. Effects of empathic and positive communication in healthcare consultations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J R Soc Med. Jan 1 2018:141076818769477. doi:10.1177/0141076818769477
2. Thirioux B, Birault F, Jaafari N. Empathy Is a Protective Factor of Burnout in Physicians: New Neuro-Phenomenological Hypotheses Regarding Empathy and Sympathy in Care Relationship. Frontiers in Psychology. May 26 2016. doi:10.3389/Fpsyg.2016.00763
3. Gleichgerrcht E, Decety J. Empathy in clinical practice: how individual dispositions, gender, and experience moderate empathic concern, burnout, and emotional distress in physicians. PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e61526. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061526
4. Moore PJ, Adler NE, Robertson PA. Medical malpractice: the effect of doctor-patient relations on medical patient perceptions and malpractice intentions. West J Med. Oct 2000;173(4):244-50
5. Street RL, Jr., Petrocelli JV, Amroze A, et al. How Communication "Failed" or "Saved the Day": Counterfactual Accounts of Medical Errors. J Patient Exp. Dec 2020;7(6):1247-1254. doi:10.1177/2374373520925270
6. Oxford Empathy Programme. University of Oxford. Accessed 16 March, 2018.
7. Rotenstein LS, Torre M, Ramos MA, et al. Prevalence of Burnout Among Physicians: A Systematic Review. JAMA. Sep 18 2018;320(11):1131-1150. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.12777
8. Dyrbye LN, West CP, Satele D, et al. Burnout among U.S. medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general U.S. population. Acad Med. Mar 2014;89(3):443-51. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000134
9. van Marum S, Verhoeven D, de Rooy D. The Barriers and Enhancers to Trust in a Just Culture in Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review. J Patient Saf. Oct 1 2022;18(7):e1067-e1075. doi:10.1097/PTS.0000000000001012
10. Wellings D, Appleby J. Public satisfaction with the NHS falls to a 25-year low. The King’s Fund. Accessed 26 January, 2023.
11. Kang ES, Di Genova T, Howick J, Gottesman R. Adding a dose of empathy to healthcare: What can healthcare systems do? J Eval Clin Pract. Jun 2022;28(3):475-482. doi:10.1111/jep.13664

Feedback on previous editions of the course

Quantitative

The average rating for the overall satisfaction with the workshop is 8.7/10.

Sample qualitative feedback

• “Found the course much more useful than I expected”—Oxford AHSN Workshop Attendee 2018
• “brilliant and inspiring day with fantastic speakers, thanks so much “”—Royal Society of Medicine Workshop Attendee November 2019
• “I have started designing courses to promote empathy in UG students”—Royal Society of Medicine Workshop Attendee November 2019
• "I'm delighted to see the Oxford Empathy Programme bringing international empathy researchers and practitioners together to further the practical use of empathy in healthcare…"—Lidewij Niezink (Empathic Intervision)

Contact us and book a workshop

Email the team on empathy@leicester.ac.uk.

We are pleased to announce the Centre will welcome Visiting Professor Andrew Miles from September 2023. This offers an exciting opportunity to exchange knowledge and to explore joint research activities and potential future collaboration on research for publication. Professor Andrew Miles is Senior Vice President and Secretary General of the European Society for Person Centered Healthcare.

We are looking forward to hosting visiting scholar, Dr Andrew Papanikitas in September and October 2023.

Andrew Papanikitas is current Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Committee on Medical Ethics and a medical doctor, educator and erstwhile academic in Oxford with an interest in professionalism and ethics in healthcare education. He co-edited the BMA medical book award-winning Handbook of Primary Care Ethics (CRC press) and BMA Highly Commended Marketization, Health and Ethics (Routledge) in 2018. He co-directs the Society of Apothecaries’ course in philosophy. He teaches students across the entire professional life course, from applicants to medical school through to healthcare leaders. He also teaches on a range of courses at Oxford University and is a Catalyst Fellow at Hull-York medical School. His PhD is on education in ethics of British family doctors. As deputy editor of the British Journal of General Practice, he is responsible for the discussion blog BJGP Life and the Life and Times section of the journal. He volunteers with several local initiatives including the Hospital Clinical Ethics Committee and the Magdalen College School medical careers programme.

He is the proud father of two amazing little girls and tweets in his own capacity as @gentlemedic.