Why Empathy is Breaking Healthcare – Neuroscience of Compassion

About the course

This provocative talk challenges the assumption that empathy is always beneficial in healthcare. Drawing on a real-life story of a burnt-out HIV clinician and a striking question from a medical student - “Is not caring always a bad thing?”- the talk explores how excessive emotional identification with patients may actually contribute to moral suffering, burnout, and compromised care.

This talk invites healthcare professionals, educators, and students to rethink the emotional demands of care and consider a more sustainable path forward - one rooted not in emotional overidentification, but in the steady, grounded practice of compassion.

Course Content

Using insights from neuroscience, including the work of Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki, we’ll distinguish between empathy - the sharing of another’s pain -and compassion - a prosocial, action-oriented response grounded in warmth and care. While empathy can trigger distress and self-related overwhelm, compassion offers a more resilient, sustainable foundation for healthcare work.

CPD points = 1 (Ethics)

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