There are at least two considerations here: the patient’s perception of a physician’s empathic expression and the physician’s level of comfort with expressing empathy and attending to patients’ emotions.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(2):111-115. doi:
10.1001/virtualmentor.2015.17.2.ecas1-1502.
One way of transmitting culture is through narrative scripts—ideas about the kind of self one ought to become—that shape medical students’ ideas of what desires, attitudes, behaviors, and dispositions are expected or unbecoming of professionals.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(2):160-166. doi:
10.1001/virtualmentor.2015.17.2.msoc1-1502.