Grieving, Reflecting, and Cultivating Empathy (GRACE)

GRACE is a space for students to have meaningful conversations about loss and to develop an understanding of the nuances of grief as a care provider. We aim to foster an emotionally supportive environment of colleagues sharing experiences and to facilitate stimulating discussions about our own philosophies towards life. As we will all inevitably be confronted with loss both as physicians and in our personal lives, we believe conversations about death and other forms of loss to be integral to the development of our ability to cope, to process, and to treat others with empathy and grace.

Some typical topics covered in GRACE include but are not limited to:

• Distinguishing between empathy and compassion; balancing self-preservation
• Supporting people experiencing different forms of loss (loss of ability, identity, a loved one, etc)
• Navigating a patient’s faith/spirituality
• Coping with the death of a patient or loved one
• Delivering bad news
• Being responsible for patients’ lives

Meetings will alternate between speaker-facilitated discussions and student-only sessions. The student sessions are an open space both for people seeking to process personal or professional experiences with loss and students wanting to learn more about how to support their colleagues. This is a resource for students! We welcome anyone to utilize it whenever they may need.

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