Developing Clinical Empathy: Making a Difference in Patient Care (FutureLearn)

Developing Clinical Empathy: Making a Difference in Patient Care (FutureLearn)

Discover the difference empathy can make to patient care, and improve your own clinical empathy. Understand empathy, and improve your own empathic ability. This course will help you develop an empathic practice that is individualised and attuned to the needs of all patients. You will learn about different types of empathy, explore non-verbal cues, and understand key opportunities for showing empathy in clinical care.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Showing an understanding of a patient’s situation is one of the most important relationship-building skills that a healthcare provider can have. This is widely recognised in healthcare: the NHS in the UK recruits for compassion as one of its core values, and medical schools look for this in applicants at admissions interviews.

What topics will you cover?

  • What is empathy?
  • The importance of empathy in healthcare
  • Empathetic opportunities and responses
  • The challenges of showing empathy
  • Building resilience

Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Describe the difference between empathy and sympathy
  • Explore the use of emotional and cognitive empathy
  • Explore the importance of empathy in healthcare
  • Identify empathic opportunities
  • Reflect on verbal and non-verbal empathic responses

-Discuss the challenges of being empathic as a healthcare professional

  • Identify the importance of self-awareness and building resilience for empathic practice

Who is the course for?
The course is suitable for anybody engaged in healthcare who interacts with patients and would like to develop their empathic practice. This may include undergraduate students undertaking medical or healthcare-focused degrees, or even those looking to work in healthcare or applying to study healthcare qualifications. The learning outcomes for this course are transferable across all healthcare specialities and can be applied worldwide regardless of the type of the health care system.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Clinical Supervision with Confidence (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Clinical Supervision with Confidence (FutureLearn)

Supervise undergraduate and postgraduate learners effectively with this online course for clinical and educational supervisors. This online course will help you become a more effective clinical supervisor or educator. It is mapped to competences within the Academy of Medical Educators’ framework for professional development, as used by the General Medical Council and Health Education England.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Reading

Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT (FutureLearn)

Improve your understanding of depression and anxiety and find out more about an effective and evidence-based treatment: CBT. Anxiety and depression are terms discussed widely, in different media and amongst family and friends. But what do those labels actually mean? On this five week course, from the University of Reading, you will explore what it means to have anxiety or depression and how they are identified.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Exercise Prescription for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Trinity College Dublin

Exercise Prescription for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn how physical exercise can help patients including those with cardiovascular disease, mental health problems and cancer. In the last few decades physical exercise has become well established as a tool to prevent and treat disease. Perceptions within the healthcare sector of exercise and its prescription as a treatment have changed dramatically in recent years.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Achieving Sustainable Development (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Trinity College Dublin

Achieving Sustainable Development (FutureLearn)

Explore the challenges of sustainable development. See the impact of UN Sustainable Development Goals on real people. Consider the impact that UN Sustainable Development Goals could have. Governments of the world have signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a UN initiative for international development. They are targets for improving the world by 2030, including: health, environment, education, and security. But will they have an impact on the lives of people?

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Human Factors in a Healthcare Environment (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Human Factors in a Healthcare Environment (FutureLearn)

Learn how the study of human factors can reduce error in healthcare with this course for healthcare professionals. Discover how understanding human factors can improve patient safety. Human factors is the study of how humans behave and interact with each other and their surroundings. It considers how humans interact in the workplace and how, due to the inevitability of human error, mistakes are likely to occur.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Point Prevalence Surveys (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Point Prevalence Surveys (FutureLearn)

Learn how to use Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) to measure antibiotic consumption and fight antimicrobial resistance. Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) are an important tool for healthcare professionals to use to assess and improve antibiotic prescribing locally, nationally and globally. This online course - led by experts from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) - looks at their use. You’ll discover the importance of measuring antibiotic consumption and how PPS can help.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Using Infection Control to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Using Infection Control to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance (FutureLearn)

Find out how effective infection control in health and social care can tackle the global risk of antimicrobial resistance. Get practical guidance on infection control in health and social care settings. This online course will explore the growing problem of antimicrobial-resistant infections in health and social care settings. You’ll find out how infectious diseases are acquired and spread, and how this contributes to the global risk of antimicrobial resistance.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Introduction to Emergency Contraception (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Introduction to Emergency Contraception (FutureLearn)

Understand emergency contraception and the choices available with this course for people working in healthcare and related fields. Emergency contraception can be confusing, with different types available and public understanding sometimes limited. On this course you will master the basics of emergency contraception: learning about the different types of post-coital contraception, exploring clinical guideliness; and working out which type of contraception is appropriate in different situations.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Biochemistry: the Molecules of Life (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Biochemistry: the Molecules of Life (FutureLearn)

Explore the impact of biochemistry on bioenergy and health, discovering why graduates are in demand; with the Biochemical Society. Biochemistry brings together all of the sciences to study the chemical and physical processes that occur in living organisms. It truly is the science of life. As a scientific discipline in its own right, biochemistry has a major impact on all areas of the life sciences and biochemists are in high demand among employers.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Protecting Health Data in the Modern Age: Getting to Grips with the GDPR (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Groningen

Protecting Health Data in the Modern Age: Getting to Grips with the GDPR (FutureLearn)

Learn how the GDPR helps to protect health data and get familiar with rights, obligations, risks and safeguards. Join this course to understand how health data is protected. People use technologies to track their fitness and health. Medical and health professionals use technologies to treat patients. These technologies generate a lot of health data. With technological developments in the health sector come questions of privacy.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Nursing in Crisis? Exploring Current Challenges (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Coventry University

Nursing in Crisis? Exploring Current Challenges (FutureLearn)

Explore the key issues affecting nurses' job satisfaction and practice today - from stress to changing roles and healthcare needs. Nurses play an important role in providing healthcare around the world and, in some countries, form more than 50% of the healthcare workforce. Yet, there is a global shortage with international organisations citing working conditions and image as contributing factors to nurses leaving the profession and to their initial recruitment.

Self Paced
2 Weeks