Importance of communication in medical practice and medical education: An emphasis on empathy and attitudes and their possible influences

Cognitive dissonance and mindset perturbations during crisis: "eco-socio-psycho-somatic" perspectives

Mandatory and restrictive health regulations during the corona pandemic caused psychic disorders in many people, which even led to clinically relevant mental disorders. At the same time, there was gradually a polarization of opinions among the population. In order to improve future pandemic management, an integrative understanding of these psychosocial processes therefore seems useful. Here we start theoretically with the mental effects of inconsistencies of the information environment by referring to concepts such as the theory of cognitive dissonance. In a next step, we use the psychodynamic theory to understand the affective-motivational defense mechanisms underlying these cognitive states and processes. However, a broader theoretical framework of psychoanalysis seems to make sense, because self-referential processing also influences the style of thinking. For this reason, we use a more comprehensive psychological systems theoretical framework model to integrate these different perspectives. This integrative view refers in part to basic knowledge of health psychology regarding the resistance of unhealthy ways of thinking and behaviors and the possibilities for interventions for change. We then extend this model to a broader picture that also covers the relationship between men and their environment. This results in the perspective of a multidimensional socioecological theoretical framework, which as a heuristic reference model and related to other ecological approaches could also be helpful for various theoretical questions for public health, and could provide a better public understanding of health issues. In line with this perspective, we hypothesize that with regard to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the acceptance of public health narratives could be increased if a more consistent picture of the scientific descriptions and explanations of the pandemic - similar to the model proposed - could be provided, which would enable the understanding of the origin, course and countermeasures, and thus could have positive collective psycho-hygienic effects.

Role of narrative medicine-based education in cultivating empathy in residents

OBJECTIVE

To explore the role of narrative medicine-based education in standardized empathy training for residents.

METHODS

Among the 2018-2020 residents at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, 230 receiving neurology training were enrolled in this study and randomly divided into study and control groups. The study group received narrative medicine-based education and standardized routine resident training. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student version (JSE-MS) was used to evaluate empathy in the study group, and the neurological professional knowledge test scores of the two groups were also compared.

RESULTS

In the study group, the empathy score was higher than the preteaching score (P < 0.01). The neurological professional knowledge examination score was higher in the study group than in the control group, albeit not significantly.

CONCLUSION

The addition of narrative medicine-based education in standardized training improved empathy and may have improved the professional knowledge of neurology residents.