Approaches to prepare medical students to manage their emotions in clinical practice: A scoping review

Introduction Emotions arising in clinical care affect both physician well-being and patient care. However, medical curricula provide limited training for students to identify and manage their own emotions and understand their impact. This scoping review identified educational approaches for preparing medical students with the skills to recognize and manage their emotions during physician–patient interactions and in clinical environments. We examined teaching methods, topics, educational purpose, and timing of emotion skills training programs in medical education.Methods Following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews, the systematic search was implemented on February 1st, 2025, across five databases. We focused on training programs delivered before licensing examination. Two independent reviewers screened 7986 articles, with 201 articles included for analysis.Results The teaching programs had considerable variability, with 46% originating in the U.S. Most programs (46%) implemented emotion skills training during clinical years, primarily addressing emotions in a general context. Teaching methods included group work, case-based learning, simulations, patient experience, and debriefing. Programs were delivered in classrooms (57%), clinical settings (30%) via face-to-face (62%) or online modalities (31%). Emotion-related topics (ET) and their educational purpose (EP) focused on developing students’ inner emotional capacity (ET:41%, EP:30%), the emotional identity as a physician (ET:21%, EP:26%), relational emotional capacity (ET:19%, EP:21%), and strategies for sustaining emotional wellbeing (ET:19%, EP:23%).Discussion Most programs teach emotion skills face-to-face, in classroom settings, during clinical years, with a focus on topics such as reflective emotional capacity or emotion regulation and management, aiming to support the development of students’ inner emotional capacity or their emotional identity as future physicians. The findings underscore the increasing recognition of emotion-related skills as critical for patient care and professional development, and highlight elements of training, such as reflection or feedback, which can help reshape medical education to enhance medical students’ emotion competence.