Table 1.
Summary of characteristics of included studies
| Study | Year | County | No participants | Participant type | Intervention type | Duration of intervention (hours) | Outcome assessor | Outcome measure | Effect of intervention |
| Alhassan28 | 2019 | Ghana | 210 | Nursing and midwifery students | Communication skills training | 12 | Self | JSE | No significant effect found |
| Arthur et al23 | 2017 | UK | 112 | Healthcare assistants | Perspective-taking training | 12 | Self | JSE | No significant effect found |
| Blair Irvine et al29 | 2012 | USA | 172 | Healthcare professionals | Mixed | 4 | Self | VST | Significant effect found |
| Buffel du Vaure et al30 | 2017 | France | 352 | Medical students | Balint group | 10.5 | Self | JSE | Mixed |
| Observer | CARE | No significant effect for JSE, significant effect for CARE | |||||||
| Butow et al31 | 2007 | Australia | 30 | Physicians | Communication skills training | 15 | Observer | CRP | No significant effect found |
| Collins et al33 | 2017 | USA | 25 | Student pharmacists | Literature intervention | 2 | Self | JSE | No significant effect found |
| Daniels et al33 | 1998 | Canada | 53 | Nursing students | Communication skills training | 18 | Self | ECRS | Significant effect found |
| Self | CIC | ||||||||
| Foster et al34 | 2016 | USA | 70 | Medical students | Communication skills training | NE | Observer | ECCS | Significant effect found |
| Gholamzadeh et al35 | 2018 | Iran | 63 | Nursing students | Empathy skills training | 8 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
| Gould et al36 | 2017 | UK | 249 | Nursing staff and healthcare assistants | Mixed | NE | Self | JSE | No significant effect found |
| Hastings et al37 | 2018 | UK | 236 | Qualified care staff | Mixed | 3 | Self | SECBQ | No significant effect found |
| Hattink et al38 | 2015 | The Netherlands and UK | 142 | Qualified care staff | Mixed | NE | Self | IRI | Significant effect found |
| Larti et al39 | 2014 | Iran | 82 | Nursing students | Communication skills training | 12 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
| Lobchuk et al40 | 2018 | Canada | 44 | Nursing staff and students | Perspective-taking training | 2.66 | Observer | CARE | Mixed |
| Self | CARE (modified) | No significant effect found for CARE. Significant effect found on modified CARE | |||||||
| Lor et al41 | 2014 | USA | 40 | Student pharmacists | Perspective-taking training | 18 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
| LoSasso et al42 | 2017 | USA | 70 | Medical students | Communication skills training | 1 | Self | JSE | No significant effect found |
| Mueller et al43 | 2001 | USA | 37 | Physical therapy students | Mixed | 11 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
| Riess et al44 | 2012 | USA | 99 | Physicians | Empathy skills training | 4 | Observer | CARE | Mixed |
| Self | JSE | No significant effect found for CARE, JSE, BEES. Significant effect for EFDT | |||||||
| BEES | |||||||||
| EFDT | |||||||||
| Shapiro et al45 | 1998 | USA | 78 | Medical students | Mindfulness training | 17.5 | Self | ECRS | Significant effect found |
| Sripada et al46 | 2010 | USA | 12 | Physicians | Psychotherapy intervention | NE | Observer | BLRI | Significant effect found |
| Sterkenburg and Vacaru47 | 2018 | The Netherlands | 224 | Qualified care staff | Serious game | 0.33 | Self | EQ | Significant effect found |
| Tulsky et al48 | 2011 | USA | 48 | Physicians | Communication skills training | NE | Observer | ES | Significant effect found |
| EO | |||||||||
| PE | |||||||||
| Vaghee et al49 | 2018 | Iran | 127 | Nursing students | Perspective-taking training | 3 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
| Wolf et al50 | 1987 | Canada | 134 | Medical students | Communication skills training | 12 | Self | HRI | Significant effect found |
| MCI | |||||||||
| Wundrich et al51 | 2017 | Germany | 158 | Medical students | Empathy skills training | 6 | Self | JSE | Mixed. |
| Observer | OSCE | No significant effect found for JSE. Significant effect found on OSCE scores | |||||||
| Yang et al52 | 2018 | China | 177 | Nursing students | Narrative medicine intervention | 42 | Self | JSE | Significant effect found |
BEES, Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale; BLRI, Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory; CARE, Consultation and Relational Empathy Scale; CIC, Carkhuff Index of Communication; CRP, Coding Role Play; ECCS, Empathic Communication Coding System; ECRS, Empathty Construct Rating Scale; EFDT, Ekman Facial Decoding test; EO, Empathic Opportunities; EQ, Empathy Quotient; ES, Empathic Statements; HRI, Helping Relationship Inventory; IRI, Interpersonal Reactivity Inventory; JSE, Jefferson Scale of Empathy; MCI, Medical Communication Index; OSCE, Objective Structured Clinical Examination; PE, Perceived Empathy; SECBQ, Staff Empathy for People with Challenging Behaviour; VST, Video Situational Testing.