Empathy in Medical Education: Its Nature and Nurture - a Qualitative Study of the Views of Students and Tutors.

This study provides insights into empathic erosion in medical school, including the problems of negative role modelling and the limitations of an assessment system that rewards 'tick-box' representations of empathy, rather than true acts of compassion. It also identifies factors that should enable the flowering of empathy, such as new pedagogical approaches to resilience and a role for the arts and humanities.