Kindness and Medical Education: A Longitudinal Assessment Introduction

Patients, families, medical students, and healthcare providers have all attested to the importance of offering kindness when providing patient care. The role of kindness, however, is rarely explicitly taught during medical school. Moreover, little is known about medical students’ perceptions about the practice of kindness or how kindness may be distinguished from values like compassion or empathy. This article discusses the findings gleaned from a longitudinal, multi-method exploration of medical students’ perceptions of practicing kindness when providing care during their medical training. The findings from this work suggest that training in kindness is best supported by a systematic approach that offers teaching and mentoring in the practice of kindness over time. Such an approach allows students to pair their kindness-related skills with the increasing complexity of their clinical skills.