Workshops
Workshop: Adapting EMPathicO e-learning for use in medical student education
Professor Flis Bishop
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Flis Bishop is a Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Southampton, where her work on contextual effects in healthcare has developed into a multidisciplinary research programme on digital training for enhancing clinical empathy.
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Rationale:
EMPathicO is a very brief, evidence-based, behaviourally-informed e-learning package designed to enhance primary care practitioners’ communication of clinical empathy and realistic optimism. It was developed using extensive qualitative work with patients and practitioners including first contact physiotherapists, GPs, and nurses, and tested in the largest empathy trial ever done in the UK.
We are now adapting EMPathicO – using the ‘person-based approach’ - to make it suitable for use in medical education. This workshop will enable participants to access EMPathicO while experiencing for themselves part of the ‘person-based approach’ to developing and adapting interventions (in this case, teaching resources) to maximise audience engagement.
Learning objectives:
Participants will gain confidence in using the ‘think aloud’ method as part of the person-based approach to intervention design to elicit feedback on teaching materials. Participants will also be able to identify ways in which they could use EMPathicO in their own setting.
Teaching methods:
A brief didactic presentation will introduce EMPathicO and the ‘think aloud’ method. Participants will be asked to work in pairs, taking it in turns to interview each other using the think aloud method. Interviewers will be provided with guiding prompts. Interviewees will access EMPathicO on their own devices.
Evaluation:
The workshop will conclude with a whole-group discussion, to encourage reflection on learning and next steps, supplemented with a combination of written notes and polling software. Participants’ self-reported understanding of ‘think aloud’ methods will be collected at the start and end of the workshop. Participants will contribute to a ‘table of changes’ suggesting further adaptations to EMPathicO for use in medical education and will identify ways in which they could use EMPathicO in their own work.
Workshop: Digital storytelling and empathetic healthcare: applications in research, education, and policy
Dr Alice Fiddian-Green
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Alice Fiddian-Green, PhD, MPH is Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. Alice is a community-engaged researcher with over ten years of experience using public health storytelling methods (e.g., digital storytelling, photovoice, ‘zines) in community and academic settings. She believes that sharing and listening to personal narratives is the key to addressing the current global empathy gap. Alice’s research applies a reproductive justice framework to examine the intersections of interpersonal and institutional violence, mental health, and substance use. She uses public health storytelling methods to center the voices of people directly impacted by substance use, and to inform the implementation and de-implementation of programs and policies that promote empathy, equity, and social change. She is currently working on two projects: one examining adolescent-parent decision making and HPV vaccination uptake, and the other that aims to reduce community and clinical level stigma to increase treatment engagement for pregnant people and adolescents that misuse opioids. Alice was trained by StoryCenter in 2014 and has since facilitated introductory digital storytelling workshops at UMass Amherst Institute for Social Science Research; University of Oslo, Norway; UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center; and the University of San Francisco.
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Coming soon.
Workshop: Empathy Through an Intersectional Lens: Seeing the Unseen to Shape More Inclusive Healthcare
Dr Cleo White
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Cleo is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with a passion for diversity, inclusion, and fostering positive change. She obtained her PhD in Tissue Engineering from the University of Birmingham in 2019 and has since held various research and innovation roles across both the private and public sectors. Currently, Cleo is involved in two projects: one with the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare , where she explores how patient and practitioner socio-cultural characteristics influence empathy, and a University of Leicester wide project I-REACCH (Inclusive Research Environment Achieved through Culture Change) where she leads on the co-design of an inclusive and empathic research leadership toolkit.
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Despite growing awareness of health inequities, healthcare systems often struggle to fully recognise how overlapping identities—such as race/ethnicity, gender, disability and other socio cultural characteristics—interact to shape patient experiences. Intersectionality offers a vital lens for understanding these complexities, challenging bias, and fostering more inclusive, empathic care.
This interactive workshop creates a psychologically safe space for participants to explore how personal assumptions and systemic norms may unintentionally silence or marginalise others—and how they can begin to notice and address what often goes unseen. Through a series of creative and experiential activities, attendees will reflect, share, and collaborate to deepen their understanding of intersectionality in action.
Participants will begin by creating their own identity webs to explore how personal and social identities influence perception. Next, they will reflect on implicit biases and share insights in pairs. The session then moves into a case-based activity where participants work collaboratively to analyse a patient, student, or service user experience through an intersectional lens, identifying opportunities to embed greater empathy and inclusion into their own practice. Finally, in small groups, participants will explore real-world healthcare, education, or research scenarios to surface unexamined assumptions that may perpetuate inequity. Each participant will complete individual reflection and identify one practical change they will take forward.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Define intersectionality and its relevance to empathic healthcare.
Reflect on and challenge their own assumptions and biases.
Practise identifying how overlapping identities affect patient experiences.
Apply intersectional thinking to real-world contexts.
Develop strategies to support inclusion within their institutions.
Workshop: Experiencing Delirium Through AI-Powered Augmented Reality
Dr Mathias Schlögl
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Mathias Schlögl, MD,MPH, MBA, is Chief Physician of Geriatrics at Klinik Barmelweid (Switzerland) and Senior Research & Innovation Fellow at the UZH Healthy Longevity Center.
He is Deputy Editor of the Delirium Journal and Board Member of the IAGG eTRIGGER Program, a global initiative to strengthen geriatric education and research capacity.
A passionate educator and four-time recipient of Switzerland’s SIWF Award for excellence in medical teaching, he curates the Geriatric Seminar Series - a weekly hybrid CME forum with over 1,500 participants - and leads the national Dräger Delirium Day, an innovation platform for interprofessional delirium training. His work focuses on delirium, communication, and empathy in aging care.
At the 2025 Empathy Symposium, he presents a workshop on AR-based delirium training.
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Rationale:
Delirium affects up to 60% of hospitalized older adults and is often underdiagnosed, leading to increased mortality, longer hospital stays, and distress for both patients and caregivers. Despite its impact, traditional medical education fails to adequately convey the lived experience of delirium, limiting healthcare professionals' ability to provide empathic care. Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) present an innovative approach to delirium education by enabling immersive simulations of cognitive and sensory disruptions. This workshop leverages AI-powered AR to provide first-hand experience of delirium, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world patient care.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Recognize the cognitive and sensory disruptions experienced by delirium patients.
Evaluate the role of AI-driven AR in empathy-based medical education.
Apply immersive learning strategies to delirium care and medical training.
Develop strategies for integrating experiential delirium education into clinical practice.
Teaching Methods:
This workshop follows an interactive and hands-on learning format. Participants will rotate through AI-powered AR simulations while engaging in structured discussions, reflective exercises, and action planning.
Evaluation of Outcomes:
Pre- and post-evaluations will use three validated empathy scales to measure the workshop’s impact:
Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) – assessing perspective-taking and compassionate care.
Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) – measuring cognitive and emotional empathy shifts.
Immersive Tendency Questionnaire (ITQ) – evaluating participants’ ability to engage in and respond to immersive VR experiences.
Participants will also complete structured reflections and develop action plans for integrating insights into their practice.
Workshop: Rewriting Empathy: A Creative Writing Workshop for Rehumanising Healthcare
Dr Rachel Winter
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Rachel is an Associate Professor in Medical Education at the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, University of Leicester and an Honorary Consultant in Psychiatry at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. She has worked with the University to develop and deliver the Medicine with Foundation Year at Leicester Medical School which offers a bespoke empathy-focused curriculum. She helped secure funding for the Centre for Empathic Healthcare and has worked with he Centre to help integrate empathy-focused training across the medical curriculum. She is currently leading the Creative Empathy workstream, finding evidence-based, effective ways to enhance empathy through creative writing, reflection and reading. She founded and continues to support a widening participation project in Leicester, Medicine Calling, which aims to inspire young people to consider a career in mental health and consider the values, including empathy, needed for a carer in healthcare. In her clinical role she works in older persons psychiatry, with a special interest in memory and dementia care.
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Rationale:
In healthcare environments where time pressures and clinical demands are high, empathy and curiosity often become sidelined—despite being essential to compassionate, effective care. This workshop offers creative writing as a powerful, accessible tool to reconnect healthcare professionals with the human stories at the heart of their work. Rooted in narrative medicine and arts-based pedagogy, the session creates space for emotional insight, reflective practice, and peer connection. It is designed to support educators, clinicians, and policymakers seeking practical, human-centred strategies to foster empathy in their institutions.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Apply creative writing techniques to enhance empathy and reflective practice.
Recognise how narrative-based exercises in professional or educational settings can enhance empathy and help rehumanise healthcare.
Have a better understanding of integrating arts-based approaches for teaching and sustaining empathy in healthcare organisations.
Teaching Methods:
This 90-minute workshop is highly interactive, with minimal didactic content. Participants will engage in guided creative writing exercises exploring patient perspective and reflecting on personal clinical experience (as a clinician or a patient). Small group discussions will encourage peer feedback, perspective-taking, and emotional connection. Facilitators will model facilitation techniques and provide adaptable ideas for practices to be adapted across different contexts.
Evaluation of Outcomes:
Participants will reflect on their experience and learning through structured group discussion. The workshop fosters not only individual reflection but also collective insight into how empathy can be meaningfully taught and sustained. Participants will be encouraged to consider ways they intend to apply creative writing in their own setting.
Workshop: #SpacesForListening have enabled empathy in healthcare for the last 5 years: A simple human approach
Dr Charlie Jones and Brigid Russell
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Dr Charlie Jones:
Charlie Jones leads a clinical psychology team in an acute hospital in Bristol. He has a passion for systemic and relational approaches to working in healthcare, and how we can create sustainable conditions for safe, honest conversations with both colleagues and patients. He has worked in the NHS since 2004. He’s a dad with twin boys.
Brigid Russell:
Brigid Russell is a coach, facilitator, and leadership consultant working with people across the public and third sectors in Scotland. Over the past five years she has collaborated with Charlie Jones in convening weekly “Spaces for Listening” over zoom, listening to and connecting with many hundreds of people across the UK and beyond. She is passionate about creating more spaces for having more open conversations.
She is undertaking a doctorate part-time with Hult International Business School at Ashridge using an action research approach, and her inquiries are around relational approaches to learning and development, and dialogue.
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Rationale:
#SpacesForListening are lightly-structured sessions which create a space in which we each have an equal opportunity to share thoughts and feelings. We participate as people; not by profession, grade, job title. We have convened around 500 spaces (approx. 2 per week) since May 2020 (the start of the pandemic), involving 2000+ people from across the UK and beyond. Further reading Creating spaces for listening – what does it mean and what does it take? By Charlie Jones, Brigid Russell, and King-Chi Yau
We have found that it is possible for a small group to quickly establish enough safety and trust in a short space of time, and have a meaningful exchange of views and empathy. How can we create and sustain a culture of listening in healthcare? Find out how #SpacesForListening can enable people in professional roles and people accessing services to engage more empathically with each other.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will:- explore how we can listen to each other with more care, curiosity, and attention; understand we do not need to fix each other to feel more human and connected; consider how we can have better conversations in our organisations and communities; participate in a naturally unfolding dialogue alongside other participants and facilitators.
Teaching Methods:
#SpacesForListening is about more than skills or specific interventions, it's a way of being with each other. We will model this in the session. After a brief outline, participants will experience the different elements of #SpacesForListening: including turn-taking in three rounds, equality of participation, active listening. We will gather in two circles, each of 8 people, where everyone is an equal participant. Maximum number of attendees in the workshop is 14 (plus the two facilitators = 16 in total).