A social neuroscience-informed model for teaching and practising compassion in health care

• DOI: 10.1111/medu.12926
• Publication Date: 2016-02-20T19:57:20Z
• Authors: Beth A Lown
• Keywords: Compassion; Personal distress; Empathic concern; Prosocial Behavior; Acknowledgement

Empathy and compassion are important catalysts for the healing process, but some research suggests their decline during training practice. Compassion involves recognition, understanding, emotional resonance empathic concern another's concerns, distress, pain suffering, coupled with acknowledgement, motivation relational action to ameliorate these conditions.Neuroscientists have identified neural networks that generate shared representations of directly experienced observed feelings, sensations actions. When evoke or painful situation, humans experience altruistic help. The resulting behaviours associated activation areas in brain affiliation reward.Activation is sensitive multiple inter- intrapersonal influences. These include ability focus one's attention, receive accurately interpret input about perspective one adopts order understand experience, self-other boundary awareness, degree which values welfare, recognise regulate own emotions, attend wellbeing through self-care self-compassion, effective communication skills, reflection meta-cognition.Current can be modulated education positive a sense affiliation, reward prosocial behaviours. A process model framework examples educational goals, interventions resources curriculum development described. However, must aligned changes clinical practice sustain compassionate care.