A Visual Arts Activity to Support Residents as They Care for "Difficult Patients".

Certain patients significantly challenge the care team, increasing the risk of burnout as clinicians struggle to perform their best work while meeting the needs of their patients. Imagining another's perspective, a clinical empathy skill, can increase compassion and lower distress when interacting with these patients. To evaluate the effectiveness of an art-based perspective-taking activity on clinicians' feelings of discomfort when anticipating encounters with challenging patients.