Commentary

Students entering medical schools often have glowing personal statements regarding their sense of compassion and commitment to serving others. Their letters of recom-mendation attest to such qualities as well. Yet over the course of 4 years in medical school, particularly during the final 2 years of clinical exposure and training, there appears to be a decline in their degree of empathy and compassion.1 This occurs despite curricula complete with courses in “Doctoring ” during the first 2 years in some programs and only variably distributed over the entire 4-year period of medical school in even fewer programs (personal com-munication with instructors of record in doctoring course at University of California, School of Medicine). It is no surprise that many house officers in graduate medical edu-cation programs appear to have a certain degree of detach