Comparing Empathy in Medical Students of two Portuguese Medicine Schools (original) (raw)
Related papers
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.
Investigación en Educación Médica, 2016
Introduction: Empathy is the mediating role of the physician-patient relationship. Through this process the practitioner seeks to understand the patient's frame of reference and also to establish a relationship of openness, mutual respect, trust and deep understanding. Objective: This study aims to analyze the perceptions of medical students on the importance of empathy in the doctor-patient relationship, and to analyze the gender differences and in the different years of the course. It is also intended to identify a taxonomy of students based on their perceptions of empathy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on undergraduate medical students. A total of 208 medical students responded to the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student Portuguese Version (JSPE-spv). Principal Components Analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the number and compositions of emerged factors. The scores of the retained factors were submitted to a cluster analysis to identify different groups of students, based on the dimension of empathy. A One-way Anova analysis and post-hoc tests of Tukey supported the identified cluster. Results: This study shows statistically significant differences between genders, i.e., female individuals show higher scores than male individuals. Empathy increases over the course, but with no statistically significant differences. Six factors emerged from factor analysis, and three of them are empathy dimensions found in other studies: ''adoption of perspectives'', ''compassionate care'', and ''standing in the patients shoes''. Cluster analysis divided the students into five groups according to the dimensions of empathy identified.
Empathy in medical students of Córdoba, Argentina
Archivos Argentinos de Pediatria, 2019
Introduction. Physicians' empathy is an advantage for a better patient care and resolution of disease, and is considered a relevant part of professional training. Objective. To measure the level of empathy and its components in medical students of the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Methods. This was an exploratory, cross-sectional study. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy was administered, in its Spanish version for health sciences students (version S), validated in Mexico and Chile, and culturally adapted to Argentina based on experts' opinion. A twofactor analysis of variance (model III) was used to assess mean differences between sexes and school years, and the interaction between these factors. Results. 306/497 students from first through fifth year assessed in November 2016. The sample was stratified by school year and sex. Significant differences were observed in overall empathy and in compassionate care in both factors. These differences increased over the years (higher among fifth year students and lower among first year ones), and women showed higher values than men in terms of empathy and compassionate care. Conclusion. Overall empathy, and the compassionate care component specifically, increased from first through fifth year (and were higher among women compared to men), which evidenced the progressive development of the affective component of empathy. The percentage of development of overall empathy and the cognitive components showed little progression.
Empathy in senior year and first year medical students: a cross-sectional study
BMC Medical Education, 2011
Background: The importance of fostering the development of empathy in undergraduate students is continuously emphasized in international recommendations for medical education. Paradoxically, some studies in the North-American context using self-reported measures have found that empathy declines during undergraduate medical training. Empathy is also known to be gender dependent-(highest for female medical students) and related to specialty preference -(higher in patient-oriented than technology-oriented specialties). This factor has not been studied in Portuguese medical schools. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of undergraduate medical students on self-rated measures of empathy collected at entrance and at the conclusion of the medical degree, and on the association of empathy measures with gender and specialty preferences in one medical school in Portugal. Empathy was assessed using the Portuguese adaptation of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-students version (JSPE-spv) among three cohorts of undergraduate medical students in the first (N = 356) and last (N = 120) year. The construct validity of JSPE-spv was cross-validated with Principal Component Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach' Alpha. Global JSPE-spv score differences were examined by year of medical school, gender and specialty preferences (people-oriented vs technology-oriented specialties).
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.
2021
Purpose This study was conducted to assess the developmental factors of empathy among medical students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). Methods To assess the empathy levels, 42 first-year and an equal number of last-year medical students were randomly selected. They answered a questionnaire including the medical student version of the Jefferson Scale, demographic, and some related variables. Statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square test, T-test, univariate, and multivariate regressions. Result The study population consisted of 51 (60.7 %) men and 33 (39.3 %) women with a mean (SD) age of 22.24 (4.10) years. The Jefferson score was 110.19 ± 13.61 and 103.52 ± 20.00 in first- and last-year medical students, respectively. Moreover, medical students who completely passed at least one of the considered empathy courses of the TUMS curriculum had higher empathy scores compared to their counterparts (109.83 ± 15.54 vs. 103.68 ± 19.02). There was no significan...
Changes of empathy in medical college and medical school students: 1-year follow up study
BMC Medical Education, 2012
Background This study aims to determine the correlation between medical education systems, medical college (MC) and medical school (MS), and empathy by investigating the changes in empathy among students with each additional year of medical education. Methods The subjects were MC and MS students who had participated in the same study the previous year. All participants completed the same self-report instruments: a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, and the Korean edition of the Student Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-S-K), Among 334 students, the final analysis was conducted on the data provided by 113 MC and 120 MS students, excluding 101 with incomplete data. Results The age and sex did not affect the changes in empathy. Though the JSE-S-K score of MS was significantly higher than that of MC in initial investigation, this study found no difference of empathy between MC and MS. Conclusion Empathy increased significantly after one year of medical educa...
Korean Journal of Medical Education , 2022
Purpose: Empathy levels have been observed to often decrease when medical undergraduates move to the clinical years, particularly in the Western countries. However, empathy either remains similar or increases in many Asian medical schools. This study investigated the longitudinal empathy profile of medical students in Singapore. Methods: Two cohorts of medical students who enrolled in 2013 and 2014 to the National University of Singapore were tracked for 5 years. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-student version was used. Analyses on the mean of the empathy level and individual factors, year-wise and gender comparison were conducted. Results: Average response rates for cohort 1 and 2 were 68.1% (n=181-263) and 55.4% (n=81-265), respectively. For both cohorts, there was no significant change across year of study in the mean empathy score. Average scores for both cohorts were 113.94 and 115.66. Though not significant, we observed mean empathy to be lowest at the end of year 5 (112.74) and highest in year 2 (114.72) for cohort 1 while for cohort 2, the lowest level of empathy was observed in year 5 (114.20) and highest in year 4 (118.42). Analysis of subcomponents of empathy only showed a significant difference for cohort one factor 1 (perspective taking) and factor 3 (standing in patients' shoes) across the study years. Conclusion: No significant change in empathy score was observed during the transition from pre-clinical to clinical years, unlike many Western and Far-Eastern studies. This might be due to the curriculum and influence of the Asian values.
2020
Background: As an important feature in patient-physician communication for both primary and clinical care, empathy is one of the basic competencies that physicians should possess. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the level of empathy among medical students in all years of medical training using two different instruments: the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (for clinical empathy level) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (for general empathy level). Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in 2017-2018 academic year with students studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine. Data collection form, Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) was applied to the students by the researchers. The statistical analysis was carried out by using IBM-SPSS version 23 for Mac OS. T-test, ANOVA test, Spearman and Pearson correlation analysis were used for comparisons. Results: The mean TEQ s...
Medical empathy in medical students in Madrid: A proposal for empathy level cut-off points for Spain
PLOS ONE
This study evaluates the degree of empathy among medical students and its influencing factors at three critical moments of their degree studies (beginning of first year and end of third and sixth years) as well as establishes low-, medium-, and high-empathy cut-off points to obtain valid and reliable results that can be extrapolated to the general population. This cross-sectional study of the eight (public and private) medical schools in the province of Madrid, used an electronic questionnaire with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE), Medical Student Well-Being Index, and other independent characteristics as measuring instruments. Of the 2,264 student participants, 1,679 (74.0%) were women, with a 50.7% participation rate. No significant differences were found in empathy levels by academic year. Regarding range, percentile and cut-off point tables were established to identify students with high, medium, and low empathy levels. Women (p<0.001), volunteer workers (p<0.001), and...