Doctor-patient relationship and emotional intelligence, a challenge in medical education

Abstract

The inhuman over-technification has promoted a reductionist vision that affects the way in which Medicine is practiced, seriously damaging the Doctor-Patient relationship. The lack of training in humanistic competencies determines a utilitarian and sociobiological vision. The deficiency in understanding regarding individual and other people’s emotions is a determining factor in the social skills that as doctors we must promote in the next generations so that we can re-focus medical and scientific care on an anthropocentric vision. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is defined as the ability to perceive and identify the emotions of others and their own, to discriminate between them and use this information to guide though, acting accordingly. It is necessary to structure medical education of humanistic competences for the benefit of professional practice based on communication skills that reflect an integral vision of the human being. A review (83 articles) was carried out, in order to identify the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and the doctor-patient relationship, presenting a comprehensive overview of the relevance that teaching these competencies has in the medical education of the XXI century.