No abstract

The VR-CoDES CC may be used to help clinicians in recognizing or facilitating cues and concerns, thereby improving the recognition of patients' emotional distress, the therapeutic alliance and quality of care for these patients.

The applied procedures may be helpful for multi-centre focus group research on other topics.

Research employing the VR-CoDES-P should be applied to develop research-based approaches to maximize appropriate responses to patients' indirect and overt expressions of emotional needs.

Emotional intelligence-based education may be able to contribute to the teaching of professionalism and communication skills in medicine, but further research is needed before its wholesale adoption in any curriculum can be recommended.