Evidence-based empathy skills for healthcare teams

Duration

Full-day

Location

Leicester

Dates 

TBA

Who is this course for?

This workshop is designed for entire healthcare teams—clinical and non-clinical—who work together in any healthcare setting. Whether you’re part of a ward team, community team, department, or cross-disciplinary service, this course will support your group to reflect, reconnect, and strengthen team empathy for better staff wellbeing and patient care.

Overview

Empathic teams don’t just feel better to work in—they deliver better patient care. This full-day, highly interactive workshop is designed for anyone working in healthcare teams—clinical and non-clinical—who wants to strengthen workplace relationships, improve wellbeing, and create a more positive team culture.

Based on over 20 years of research, this course equips participants with practical strategies to build team empathy. It’s fun, hands-on, and inclusive. You’ll explore how empathy between team members improves communication, reduces complaints, boosts morale, and ultimately benefits patients.

You’ll leave with a concrete action plan developed with your team, ready to take forward in your workplace.

This course is available by commission only and is tailored to the needs of your specific team or department. To explore setting up a session for your team, please contact us at empathy@le.ac.uk.

Feedback from previous courses:

• “Interactive workshop with great presenters.”
• “I liked being able to see the differences between the departments and how similar barriers we have when it comes to empathy.”
• “It was good to learn more about other disciplines and work with people I’ve not met.”
• “Provided greater understanding of empathy and how it impacts others.”

By the end of the course, participants will

• Understand the evidence supporting team empathy and its impact on patients and staff.
• Reflect on their team dynamics and experiences of empathic (or unempathic) workplace interactions.
• Identify the characteristics of effective and empathic teams.
• Develop tools to promote self-empathy, civility, and emotional well-being at work.
• Recognise barriers to empathy within teams and learn how to overcome them.
• Design and commit to small, practical actions that improve empathy in their team environment.

Format

This full-day workshop includes:

• Facilitator-led presentations grounded in evidence and real-world examples
• Interactive group exercises exploring team dynamics, empathy, and barriers to effective collaboration
• Reflective activities to build self-empathy and promote individual well-being
• Creative, whole-team sessions to generate ideas, identify shared priorities, and co-develop a realistic action plan tailored to your team’s context
• Opportunities for informal connection, such as caption competitions, kindness challenges, and movement breaks

Preparation

No formal preparation for this course is required.

Assessment

There is no assessment for this course. The course is for your continuing professional development, and is not designed to provide a formal qualification. A certificate of completion will be provided at the end of the course.

This course provides 7 hours of CPD.

Course Fees 

Please contact us to discuss pricing.

Funding and Scholarships

N/A

Booking

N/A

Course Coordinator

Dr Andy Ward, Director of Education and Training at the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, Associate Professor of Medical Education, and Honorary Senior Academic GP.

Co-facilitator(s)

TBA