Managing barriers to empathy in the clinical encounter: a qualitative interview study with GPs.

Background: Current daily general practice has become increasingly technical and somatically oriented (where attention to patients' feelings is decreased) due to an increase in protocol-based guidelines. Priorities in GP-patient communication have shifted from a focus on listening and empathy to task-oriented communication.

Aim: To explore what barriers GPs experience when applying empathy in daily practice, and how these barriers are managed.