Abstract

Physician empathy plays an essential role within patient care. This is a challenging position, however, that requires workers to provide sometimes difficult diagnoses, information, and dealing with patients directly. As such, there are many factors that impact the development and implementation of empathy within the medical practice. More recently, studies have shown a decrease in empathy, particularly during medical training. This has been shown to be related to a multitude of factors including, stress, time, lack of education, and burnout. This project will, therefore, explore how this decline may be addressed by conducting a theoretical exploration of how integrating art therapy practices or programs may foster physician empathy skills within patient care. The goal of this paper is to explore existing literature and highlight themes and approaches that will provide possible recommendation for an art therapy interventions that could be used to aid practicing physicians in developing and maintaining empathy throughout their practice. This recommendation will also take into consideration physician well-being and how art therapy can also promote self-care. An analysis and synthesis of existing literature will explore overall physician care and medical training, how it relates to and impacts empathy, and how art therapy can potentially be used to promote and maintain empathetic skills. This research is necessary, in order to help develop a greater understanding of physician empathy and fill in the gaps within research.