Fostering empathy in Chinese medical students: the role of Balint groups facilitation

Empathy in healthcare can increase the quality of medical care and contribute to developing a positive doctor-patient relationship. Balint groups employ case-based talks to investigate, reflect on, and improve the clinician-patient relationship. It has been proposed to be an effective technique for increasing clinician empathy. The study aimed to examine the influence of Balint group training on the empathy ability of first-year medical students. This study was a randomized controlled trial. 80 students majoring in clinical medicine in our school were randomly divided into Balint and non-Balint groups, with 40 students in each group. The Balint group received weekly intervention for 8 consecutive weeks, while the non-Balint group received no intervention. Both groups of students were tested for empathy with the JSE-HP scale before and after the intervention. In this study, both student participation and scale recovery rates were 100%. After the intervention, the total score of empathic and all dimensions were higher in the Balint group than before training (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the total score of empathic before and after the non-Balint group intervention. Balint group training can improve the empathy of first-year medical undergraduates and provide a new way to develop medical professional quality education.