The Empathy In Health Care aims to develop an empathetic skills curriculum and materials, certified with ISO, that will be based on current research evidence and patient participation through their own personal experiences, ideas and expectations (for VET and HE). The use of this curriculum is to develop high acuity scenarios in the areas of empathetic communication which will (a) provide a consistent clinical communication experience, (b) enhance student confidence in developing new skills by allowing them to practice in a safe environment and (c) provide student feedback on areas of strength and further improvement. Based on the above scenarios develop virtual reality videos, (sector specific) educational videos (Sector specific) and role plays (sector specific) to develop the empathetic competence. Finally, to support tutors and trainers to integrate VR in their teaching /training through the development of their skills as far as virtual reality is concerned.

The first transnational meeting of the Empathy In Health Care project was held on 31 of October 2019 and 01 of November 2019 in Nicosia, Cyprus, at the premises of the Mediterranean Management Centre Limited (M.M.C.), with the participation of M.M.C Ltd, University of Nicosia, Cyprus Certification Company (C.C.C.), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Evangelische Hochschule Berlin, University of Thessaly,  Omega-Theofanis Alexandridis & SIA EE.

At the first day the partners presented their organizations and analyze the specific role they have to implement in the project. Subsequently, the MMC proceeded to the project overview. Moreover, an extensive analysis of the meaning of Empathy was made from the University of Nicosia. Present at the meeting was also the National Agency of Cyprus who presented the organization of IDEP its principles and its importance. The meeting focused on the first deliverable of the project, the two Qualification frameworks. The innovative nature of this first Intellectual Output is the fact that it develops the list of learning outcomes for a soft and transversal competence but adapts it to a specific sector.

The second day of the meeting the MMC undertook the presentation of the Project management of the Project with financial and dissemination information followed by the presentation of the helpful templates for the partners. Afterwards, the consortium analyzed the way of the implementation of the focus groups, the participants, the necessary staff, the topics, the protocol and the way of execution. The meeting ended with the schedule of the next meetings.

The Empathy in Health Care project is funded with the support of the European Commission.