Teaching Empathy in Clinical Settings

• Half-day, online (MS Teams)
• Dates: 12 February 2026, 11 February 2027

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at clinical educators, supervisors, and healthcare professionals involved in training students or junior colleagues. Whether you’re based in a university, hospital, or community setting, if you’re looking to embed empathy in medical education or workplace learning, this session is for you.

Overview

Systematic reviews have shown that empathy varies between healthcare practitioners, can be taught, and improves patient outcomes. Yet empathy often declines during clinical training. This interactive half-day webinar explores the what, why, and how of teaching empathy. Drawing on current evidence and practice from the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, participants will examine frameworks such as therapeutic empathy and the CARE Measure, and learn practical strategies to foster empathy in medical education. Participants will also work collaboratively to design a teaching intervention tailored to their clinical or educational context.

By the end of the course, participants will:

• Understand the definition and key components of therapeutic empathy.
• Explore the evidence linking empathy to patient and practitioner outcomes.
• Learn how to apply tools such as the CARE Measure to support teaching of empathic healthcare practice.
• Reflect on how to embed empathic healthcare education within formal and hidden curricula.
• Design a brief empathy-teaching intervention appropriate to their setting.

Format

The course follows an interactive webinar format, including:

• Live facilitator-led presentations
• Evidence-informed frameworks (e.g., CARE Measure, therapeutic empathy)
• Group discussions and case-based reflection
• A collaborative task to design and share teaching strategies
• Audience Q&A and peer learning

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 3.5 hours of CPD.

Course fees

• Early bird rate (until 8 weeks before course date): £125
• Standard registration fee: £149
• Block booking rate (10 places): £1,000

How to apply

Book via the University of Leicester website. (Link coming soon.)

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.