Introduction. Empathy erosion may be defined as a sudden decline in the levels of empathy that occurs as of the third year of medical school and continues until the fifth year. According to some authors, this process is normal during medical training and may be considered a model of empathic behavior. The objective of this study was to verify whether empathy erosion is a general phenomenon in the schools of medicine included in the study and its relation to gender. Design. Exploratory, cross-sectional study. Population. Students from first through sixth year of the School of Medicine of Universidad del Azuay (Cuenca, Ecuador) and from first through fifth year of the School of Medicine of Corporación Universitaria Rafael Nuñez (Colombia). Material and methods. The levels of overall empathy and of each component were estimated using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, which was administered in both schools during July and August of 2016. The significance level was established at α < 0.05. Results. Universidad del Azuay: n= 278 (98% of all students); women= 112; men= 166; Corporación Universitaria Rafael Nuñez: n= 756 (77.86% of all students); women= 434; men= 322. The model of erosion of empathy is not fulfilled at the level of overall empathy or of each studied component according to gender. Conclusions. Empathy erosion is a specific element of several different models of empathic response (and of its components). Men and women do not have the same empathic response. Such response, in the studied conditions, is variable.

The aim of this work is to describe the general process of development of empathy from the ontogenetic point of view and how this process is associated with the development of human empathy. The processes involved in the formation of empathy start in the fetal formation and conclude at the stage of young adulthood. Then, the formation of empathy in a subject is determined by biological and environmental factors and the interaction between these factors. These factors should be considered for any intervention in the curriculum relating to the introduction of empathy in the process of teaching and learning.

Objetivo: estimar la orientación empática y el comportamiento de la estructura del constructo empatía en los estudiantes de enfermería de la Universidad Mayor, sede Temuco (Chile). Materiales y métodos: se aplicó la Escala de Empatía Médica de Jefferson en la versión en español para estudiantes, validada culturalmente mediante criterio de jueces. Se estimó confiabilidad interna mediante la prueba alfa de Cronbach y aditividad de Tukey. Las medias de las sumatorias de los datos de los sujetos fueron comparadas mediante Anova bifactorial y prueba de Duncan. Se emplearon las pruebas de adecuación muestral. Los componentes fueron estimados por medio de una prueba factorial de componentes principales con rotación varimax. Resultados: la escala mostró confiabilidad. Existen diferencias de orientación empática entre los cursos, pero no en el género; se observaron seis componentes. Conclusiones: los estudiantes de enfermería se caracterizan por tener niveles de empatía relativamente altos, los cuales no difieren entre los géneros y existe una tendencia a su aumento a medida que los cursos avanzan.

Introduction:The controversy over the presence of empathic decline within the course in students of medicine, dentistry and health sciences in general, has not fully been studied. This controversy could be partially solved if massive studies of empathy levels are made in similar cultural, social and economic contexts. Material and Methods:Empathy levels within the course were studied in eighteen dental schools from six countries in Latin America (2013). The mean of the empathy levels were used to study the behavior between first and fifth academic years. The values of empathy levels within the course were observed by applying the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, the Spanish version. All these studies were cross-sectional. The value of means observed, were subjected to regression studies and further adjustment curves were obtained and the coefficient of determination were calculated. Results: Six different models of behavior were observed, which found that five of them suffer empathic decline within the course, but with different final results: in some the decline persists until the fifth academic year and in others, this decline 'recovers' persistently until the fifth academic year. The sixth model is characterized by a constant and persistent increase of levels of empathy within the course until the last academic year. Discussion: There are six different models for the behavior of means of levels of empathy within the course evaluated by a common methodology in eighteen dental schools from six countries of Latin America. These findings support the existence of variability of empathic response and a comprehensive approach is needed to find the causes that give rise to this variability. Conclusion:In dental students of Latin America, there is variability in the behavior of the distribution in means between the academic years of the dentistry schools examined in this study.

Objectives: To compare the empathy of students in two faculties of Dentistry in Peru and Argentina, three factors were considered: universities, academic year and gender. Material and Methods: Empathy matrices in Dentistry students were measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, culturally validated in Peru and Argentina. Empathy data were compared among and within the faculties tested using a three-factor analysis of variance (model III), a Duncan test, and a discriminant analysis. The level of significance used was less than 0.05. Results: We found that differences existed between the students tested. The comparison between the levels of empathy in the studied factors and the presence of unexplained variance showed that empathy was able to differentiate populations. Conclusions: The results indicate variability in the empathy values associated with the factors studied. The discriminant test confirms the differences between faculties revealed by the data matrix resulting from the JSE. These differences are possibly due to the effect of educational and social factors.

Objective The objective of this article is to examine whether the levels of empathy fit the concept of empathic decline. Method This was a non-experimental and cross-sectional study. Two populations of nursing students in two nursing programs were studied: Universidad San Sebastián (Santiago, Chile) and Universidad Mayor (Temuco, Chile). The original data on empathy, assessed by the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, were combined into a single data base. They were then analyzed by means of normality tests and homoscedasticity, Cronbach’s alpha, analysis of variance; the standard deviation of the dependent outcome measure (Sy.x) and the coefficient of determination (R2) were estimated. Results The sample sizes from the two programs were 479 and 277, respectively. It was found that the distributions of the averages over the course of study for empathy (and its components) were constant, and in some cases increased. Conclusion It was found that the distribution of the means of empathy in the nursing students analyzed did not conform to the classical empathic decline observed in other studies. Therefore, it is inferred that the traditional factors identified as causes of empathic erosion were not operating in the same way in the studied context.

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This study aimed to establish the relationship between empathy and personality styles in medical students, considering the differences by gender. The participants were 278 students of the medical career of the Universidad del Azuay, Ecuador. They were evaluated using the Jefferson empathy scale and the Millon Index of Personality Styles. Relationships between empathy and personality styles were examined using Pearson's correlation coefficient and hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis, for comparisons by gender and educational levels; with both Student's t test and analysis of variance used respectively. Results indicated that the factor structure of the empathy scale is invariant between men and women, noticing gender differences in care with compassion and total empathy, with women presenting a higher mean. Differences are observed by educational level, where the general empathy in the first three years grows progressively, and then slightly decrease. In conclusion,  female students present a mean score of total empathy greater than men, with differences of empathy according to educational level