Compassion,gratitude and awe: The role of pro-social emotions in training physicians for relational competence

Abstract

On April 28, 2019, Dr. Beat Steiner, president of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM), proposed that we as family medicine educators focus on increasing kindness and compassion in our lives and the world around us. As teachers of Family Medicine, we are poised in the intersections among healing, teaching, training, and caregiving. Faculty are held accountable for ensuring that our learners achieve certain milestones by demonstrating defined clinical competencies. We have a long list of topics, biomedical and psychosocial, to be sure our learners understand, and procedures of all types that our learners must do. This paper discusses the importance of extending kindness to ourselves, our colleagues, and patients, and explores three “pro-social” emotions—compassion, gratitude, and awe, which health professions educators can model for trainees in the service of developing self-aware, relationally competent, and well-rounded clinicians.