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

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
The Open University

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn)

Use literary and archaeological evidence to see how ancient Greeks and Romans approached health, well-being and societal issues. What did being healthy in ancient Rome or Greece look like? How can we tell what well-being meant in ancient times? This online course will help you investigate these questions, using both literary and archaeological evidence, to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Birmingham

Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn)

Learn about how your liver works, ways to look after it and how liver damage is caused, studied and treated around the world. We are currently experiencing an international explosion of liver disease that continues to have enormous impact upon healthcare systems and global health. In the UK we have seen a 20% increase in deaths related to liver disease since 2000 and this pattern reflects the global situation.

Self Paced
3 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
Discovering Science: Medicinal Chemistry (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Discovering Science: Medicinal Chemistry (FutureLearn)

What role does chemistry play in healthcare and our ability to diagnose and treat patients? Discover how chemotherapy has evolved, and some of the breakthroughs and developments chemists have made in the fight against cancer over the last 10 years. Diagnostic imaging examines how scientists learn about, and treat, the inside of the body without invasive surgery. You’ll explore how modern imaging techniques diagnose problems quickly and safely, and how diseases which may not previously have been picked up are identified.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
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
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
Clinical Bioinformatics: Unlocking Genomics in Healthcare (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Manchester

Clinical Bioinformatics: Unlocking Genomics in Healthcare (FutureLearn)

Learn about the role of clinical bioinformaticians in healthcare and how their work is helping to realise the genomics revolution. This free online course aims to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the role of Clinical Bioinformatics and Genomics in healthcare today.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn)

This course will enhance the knowledge of any person involved in the administration of medicines to patients with dysphagia. The course offers an opportunity to network with other learners and with the creators of the course through discussions, graphs and social networking features and to share knowledge with other learners and professionals.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Become a Pharmacy Preceptor (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Become a Pharmacy Preceptor (FutureLearn)

Learn how to become an effective pharmacy preceptor, exploring the qualities a great preceptor needs. Good internship programs are vital for training healthcare providers well - that’s why effective pharmacy preceptors, the teachers who guide students through their pharmacy training, are so important. This course will provide those looking to to be internship preceptors, in the context of pharmacy education, with basic knowledge about pharmacy precepting.

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