Technology-rich learning environments to support emotional regulation: a case study of the relationship between physician regulation and patient coping

Abstract

Learning to monitor and regulate one’s emotions in an academic setting is a task that all students must engage in. A unique characteristic of medical education programs is that medical students must learn to regulate their own emotions simultaneously with the task of also understanding and managing their patients’ emotions when learning to communicate bad news. A TRE was designed to connect Canadian and Chinese medical students with tutors in Hong Kong and Canada to explore the relationship between patient coping styles and emotion regulation while delivering bad news. This study shows this TRE to be a feasible prototype for fostering positive patient-physician communication during the disclosure of bad news.