Assessment of Empathy Levels among Medical Students in a Nigerian University (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
Empathy has been described as a multi-dimensional construct with cognitive and emotional components, both of which are concerned about responsivity to others. It has been touted as a skill essential for medical practice and thus useful to all healthcare professionals. It has been assessed in several countries and among several healthcare cadres however, there is a yawning gap in Ghana about its level in medical students. This study utilised a cross-sectional design to assess empathy using the Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy Scale in medical students of the University in Ghana. The scale has an alpha reliability of 0.88. One hundred and eleven students, aged 24 years [±1.5 years] completed the study. Overall, there were more males than females. The mean empathy score for the cohort was 101[SD 13] and this was adjudged to be low. There was no statistical difference between age, gender and clinical year and empathy in this cohort. The authors recommend that empathy, especially its ...
Empathy Levels among Medical Students: A Psycho-Social Analysis
Annals of Psychophysiology, 2015
Empathy is an important component in a doctor-patient relationship. It is an objective and relatively a stable constitutional trait. The apprehension among educationalists that clinical training may have an adversative effect on medical trainees and student empathy levels, holds truth as indicated by the existing literature. Long work/study hours and sleep deprivation may be the potential reasons believed to contribute to empathy decline. The aim of the study was to determine the changes in the empathy levels among the students, during their medical school years. The opinions and observations of medical students were recorded and interpreted hoping to determine the main reasons behind the changing empathy levels (if present). A psycho-social cross-sectional analysis of medical students' empathy levels was conducted at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro. A 20 item JSPE-S (Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student Version) self-administered structured questionnaire including 7-point Likert scale was used to evaluate empathy levels among students. Convenient sampling procedure was used. A total of 300 students were approached during their class timings at lecture halls. A prior verbal informed consent was taken and those who agreed were included in the study. The duration of study was from May, 2014 to August, 2014. Data analysis was done via SPSS 16.0.41% (n=123) out of 300 participants were male while 59% (n=177) were females. The mean empathy value of first year students (91.29) was greater than that of final year students (84.53). E.S value i.e. effect size value comes out to be 0.5, which is moderately significant. Study concluded that the students at LUMHS have the least empathy score in comparison to the standard values. This decline in the empathy levels explains the change of social behavior of the students across their medical school years. It is related to the hectic and difficult time period of their studies, their personal experience with the patients, realization of the difficulties and challenges in seeking medical services.
Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2019
Objective: To determine empathy level among undergraduate medical students with respect to gender and the year of study. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the University College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan, from December, 2015, to January, 2016, and comprised undergraduate medical students of either gender in all the five years of their course. Data was collected using the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Results: Of the 260 students, 153(58.9%) were females and 107(41.1%) were males. Overall mean empathy level was 90.63±11.55. Females scored higher than males (p<0.05). The highest empathy level was seen among the First Year medical students 93.39±9.11, while the lowest was seen in Third Year students 87.71±13.94. Conclusion: Overall empathy level was seriously low, indicating the need for curricular reforms.
Empathy levels among first year Malaysian medical students: an observational study
Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 2014
The literature indicates that medical practitioners experience declining empathy levels in clinical practice. This highlights the need to educate medical students about empathy as an attribute early in the academic curriculum. The objective of this study was to evaluate year one students' self-reported empathy levels following a 2-hour empathy workshop at a large medical school in Malaysia. Methods: Changes in empathy scores were examined using a paired repeated-measures t-test in this prospective before and after study. Results: Analyzing the matched data, there was a statistically significant difference and moderate effect size between mean empathy scores before and 5 weeks after the workshop (112.08±10.67 versus 117.93±13.13, P,0.0001, d=0.48) using the Jefferson Scale Physician Empathy (Student Version).
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2018
Empathy in patient care refers to a cognitive attribute that involves an understanding of the patient's concerns. It forms an integral part of the delivery of patient-centred care, which is necessary to build and maintain lasting relationships with patients and satisfy their need for social affiliation and support. Effective communication with the patient is an art that is learnt over many years of training and practice. 1 ABSTRACT Background: Empathy has been shown to improve the physician's diagnostic skills as well as enhance the quality of communication with the patient. Empathy being an integral component of patient care, this study was designed to measure empathy levels among undergraduate medical students and to identify the factors associated with it in this population. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among 437 medical students including interns on the rolls of a medical school in coastal Karnataka. The students were administered a psychometrically validated Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student Version (JSE-S) questionnaire, to measure various components of empathy. Responses were indicated on a seven point Likert scale and total scores ranged from 20-140, with higher values indicating higher levels of empathy. Results: Mean empathy score among the participants was 100.5±14.8, with significantly higher score being reported by females than males [101.9 vs. 97.3, p=0.002] and by first year students compared to third year students [105.2 vs. 95.3, p<0.01]. Empathy scores showed a declining trend as the students progressed through the medical school (p=0.002). Conclusions: Although the study showed higher empathy level among female medical students, there appeared a declining score among both genders as the years of study progressed with a marginal increase during the internship phase. This necessitates the need for incorporating caregiving as an integral part of the medical school curriculum by stressing on doctor-patient communication skills, which in turn could aid medical students become compassionate physicians.
Electronic Physician
Background: Empathy is one of the essential components of physician-patient relationship that has a significant effect on treatment outcomes. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the empathy score among medical students in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study in 2015, 624 medical students at Mashhad University of Medical Science (Iran) completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE). Data were analyzed by SPSS ver. 16, using independent-samples t-test, Chi-square, MANOVA, Spearman correlation, and Confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Of the 38.4% males and 65% females who participated in this study, the mean score of JSPE in the sample was 103.67 (±15.34) which was higher in women than in men. Also, the mean scores for each of the three factors of the scale were calculated. The total empathy score, compassionate care, and taking perspectives among different age groups were significant (p=0.000). Furthermore, students having high interest in their field were more empathic (p=0.008). Empathy of interns in relation to three areas of basic sciences (the first year, the second year and the first half of the third year), physiopathology (the second half of the third year, and the fourth year), and clinical trainings (the fifth year, and the first half of the sixth year), experienced significant reduction (p≤0.001). Conclusions: This study showed that empathy was higher in women in their first medical year and who were of younger age. The overall rate of empathy in the basic sciences period was more than that in the clinical period. Therefore, the initial exposure to clinical education, especially patient education and empathy, has a very prominent effect on the ability of medical students.
Background: Multiple research articles were continuously emphasizing that constructive effects of empathy improve patient care. Medical professional bodies often talk that medical doctors need to be competent in clinical skills and empathetic. There was enormous demand from patients that doctors should be empathetic and motivate listeners. Therefore, medical educators became highly concern about the issue whether their students possess empathetic qualities. The Aim of the Study: To measure the empathy level among the medical students and to perform validation and reliability study of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). Materials and Methods: This was a cross‑sectional study among medical students of the Defence University of Malaysia to measure empathy level. The TEQ was utilized to collect data. The data were collected in early second half of 2017. The universal sampling method was adopted, and data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Software. Results: The current study population holds an average level of empathy. Female medical students had statistically significantly (P = 0.001) higher scores than their male friends. There no statistically significant differences observed in the TEQ score between the year of study (P = 0.948) and type of admission (P = 0.065). Conclusion: The current study respondents possess an average level of empathy. Educational intervention can be incorporated to enhance empathy level which sequentially promotes patient care.
Empathy Levels in Medical Students: Do They Really Change Over Time?
Empathy - An Evidence-based Interdisciplinary Perspective
There is conceptual ambiguity in defining empathy, which is further amplified when trying to define clinical empathy. The construct of empathy has been an ongoing debate: sometimes being interpreted as a cognitive attribute, other times as an emotional state of mind. Our preferred definition is moral, emotive, cognitive and behavioural dimensions working in harmony to benefit the patient. Understanding the feelings, attitudes and experiences of a patient is the first step towards a potent and effective interview and, thereby, therapeutic agreement. Thus, clinical empathy may be the most powerful tool for a successful collaboration between the patient and the doctor. This chapter discusses the history of clinical empathy starting with Sir William Osler's definition of 'neutral empathy' where he argues that physicians need to neutralise their emotions so that they can 'see into' and, thereby, be able to 'study' the patient's 'inner life', to Halpern's insightful observations about the power of empathy, which 'lies in its ability to help us cross the divide between clinicians and patients created by their very different circumstances'. This is followed by a summary of the literature deliberating the increasing concern among medical educators and medical professionals regarding the decline in medical students' empathy during medical school, which brings us to our research question: are there significant changes in empathy levels over time in undergraduate medical education? This body of work reports on a cross-sectional study of all medical students enrolled at an Australian medical school, known for its cultural, social and religious diversity, in 2011. The research instrument used consisted of a survey encompassing questions on demographics in addition to the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Student version (JSPE-S). Empathy levels were compared while controlling for effects of age, gender, marital status, religious belief, ethnicity/cultural background, year of medical training, previous education and level of completion of programmes promoting altruism in an attempt to identify their effect on the levels of empathy. A total of 404 students participated in the study. The scores of the JSPE-S ranged from 34 to 135 with a mean score of 109.07 ± 14.937. This is considered moderate to high when compared to reported scores in previous studies on medical students. Female medical students had significantly higher empathy scores compared to their male counterparts in total and
Educación Médica, 2018
The authors aimed to compare two different empathy scales across the six-year medical course, among undergraduate medical students attending a school of medicine that was established nine years ago in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. Method: Cross-sectional study. The authors evaluated a sample of 296 students. The empathy evaluation was performed using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), version for medical students, and Davis's multidimensional Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-Brazilian version), applying both to each student simultaneously. The students were divided into three groups, according to their year on the medical course: Basic Group (1st and 2nd years), Clinical Group (3rd and 4th years) and Clerkship Group (5th and 6th years). Socio-demographic data and empathy scores, for both scales, were compared between these three groups using the Chi-square test and the Kruskal-Wallis test, as applicable. Results: the JSPE scores were similar among the students from the Basic, Clinical and Clerkship groups (p = 0.53). On the other hand, the affective dimension of IRI-Brazilian version revealed a significantly lower score in the Clerkship Group (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The authors suggest that the level of empathy can change, and in this case, the affective dimension was most affected during medical school.
BMC Medical Education, 2012
Background: There is general consent that empathy is crucial for the physician-patient relationship and thus an important issue in medical education. This comparative study was designed to examine the differences in empathy between first year and final year medical students in Jimma University, Ethiopia. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study among 131 first year and 106 final year medical students was conducted in Jimma University, Ethiopia on academic year 2010/11. The study subjects were selected using simple random sampling technique from the list of the students. Study participation was voluntary. The Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) was used for the detection of "heart-reading", i.e. emotional empathy and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RME-R test) to evaluate "mind-reading", i.e. cognitive empathy. We performed t-test to compare the mean difference in empathy and RME-R scores between the two groups of students. A linear regression was computed to identify potential factors influencing the BEES and RME-R. Results: Out of the total 237 students, 207 (87.3%) were males. The mean age of first year and final year students was 19.3 ± 1.1 and 24.0 ± 1.4 years respectively. First year students have scored 40.6 ± 23.8 while final year students scored 41.5 ± 20.8 mean in the BEES measuring emotional empathy score. However, this difference was not statistically significant (t = −0.30, df = 231, P-value >0.05). Final year students had significantly higher mean cognitive empathy score (17.8 ± 4.5) than first year students (14.4 ± 4.8) [β = 2.7, 95%CI (1.20, 4.13)]. Males had scored lower cognitive [β = −2.5, 95%CI (−4.37, −0.66)] and emotional empathy ]. Conclusions: Low emotional (BEES) and cognitive empathy sores were found in first year and final year students of Jimma University could have implications on the medical education curricula. Medical education targeted at enhancing emotional empathy and increasing cognitive empathy is required by segmenting with gender for effective physician-patient interaction. The influence of empathy on clinical competence should be studied using more rigorous design.