A successful health care provider may be described as a clinician capable of establishing a comprehensive diagnosis including identifying related risk factors. However, an equally important quality a clinician should possess is the ability to understand the experiences and feelings of others to allow better communication for better outcomes. It is likely that faculty empathy levels influence students' ability to demonstrate this attribute. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of empathy of dental faculty members relative to dental students at the Universidad San Sebastian in Chile. Using a cross‐sectional design of survey‐collected data collected with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, the authors compared the perceptions of the dental faculty involved in teaching fourth‐ and fifth‐year dental students (n=116) to the perceptions of basic and preclinical students (n=346) and clinical students (n=189). The data were collected in 2016‐17. The results showed that the mean faculty scores were higher than that of the students in compassionate care (90.1%) and perspective adoption (89.7%); however, for putting oneself in the other's shoes, the faculty had a lower score (57.8%) than the clinical students (58.2%). Future investigations are needed to understand the impact of faculty empathy scores on students and whether pedagogical interventions can increase empathy scores.

ResumenObjetivo: Determinar el nivel de orientación empática de los estudiantes de odontología del primer al quinto nivel de la carrera de Odontología, Facultad de Medicina de Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo-Clínica Alemana (Santiago), considerando el nivel y género de los estudiantes. Material y métodos: Se midió la orientación empática de los estudiantes de odontología mediante la Escala de empatía médica de Jefferson, en la versión en español para estudiantes (versión S) validada culturalmente en Chile. Los datos de los niveles analizados fueron comparados mediante un análisis de varianza trifactorial (modelo iii). Resultados: Se encontró que no existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas de orientación empática entre los distintos cursos; además se puede observar que las mujeres presentan mayores niveles de empatía en relación con los hombres. * Autor para correspondencia. Correo electrónico: victor.diaz@uss.com (V.P. Díaz Narváez).

Objetivo: Evaluar el nivel de percepción empática de alumnos de la Facultad de Estomatología Roberto Beltrán de la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Perú). Material y Métodos: Se realizó un estudio de investigación no experimental, descriptiva, de corte transversal y ex post facto causa-efecto. En la investigación participaron 258 alumnos de una población de 450 que cursan los niveles 1º, 2º, 3º, 4º y 5º de la Facultad de Estomatología de la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Perú), a quienes se les aplicó la Escala de Empatía Médica de Jefferson (EEMJ). Para el análisis de los datos obtenidos se realizó la prueba de normalidad de Shapiro-Wilk y la prueba de homocedasticidad deLevene. Posteriormente se estimaron los estadígrafos descriptivos en todos los factores estudiados, la comparación de las medias se realizó mediante un Análisis de varianza bifactorial y una prueba decomparación múltiple de Duncan y finalmente, se construyó un Baremo que sirvió para el análisis descriptivo porcentual para cada uno de los tres factores de empatía (“toma de perspectiva”, “atención por compasión” y habilidad para ponerse en el lugar del paciente). Resultados: Los puntajes obtenidos en la (EEMJ) son significativamente mayores en quinto año que en los años restantes. Las mujeres presentaron mayores niveles que los hombres de la variable orientación empática. El mayor porcentaje de alumnos se ubican en la categoría Medio de empatía en los tres factores (“toma de perspectiva”, “atención por compasión” y habilidad para ponerse en el lugar del paciente).Conclusiones:Los estudiantes de estomatología de los niveles 1°, 2°,3º, 4º y 5º de la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Perú) presentan un nivel medio de orientación empática. Las mujeres presentan mayor nivelde orientación empática que los hombres.

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.

Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Medical Empathy Scale, Spanish version (JSE-S), its factorial structure, reliability, and the presence of invariance between genders in the behavior of empathy levels among Chilean nursing students. Method Instrumental research design. The JSE-S was applied to 1,320 nursing students. A confirmatory factor analysis was used. An invariance study between genders was carried out. Descriptive statistics were estimated. Between genders, Student’s T distribution was applied alongside a homoscedasticity analysis. The level of significance was α ≤ 0.05. Results The confirmatory factor analysis determined the existence of three dimensions in the matrix. The statistical results of the invariance tests were significant, and allowed comparison between genders. Differences were found between mean empathy values, as well as in some of its dimensions between genders. Conclusion The factor structure of empathy data and its dimensions is in correspondence with the underlying three-dimensional model. There are differences in empathy levels and their dimensions between genders, with the exception of the compassionate care dimension, which was distributed similarly. Women were more empathetic than men.

Objective: to evaluate the Empathic Orientation in Nursing students of the Universidad Metropolitana of Barranquilla (Colombia). Method: a descriptive, exploratory and transversal study in which the Jefferson Medical Empathy Scale in an anonymous and confidential manner was applied to 489 students from the first to fourth undergraduate year of the Nursing Program of the Universidad Metropolitana (Barranquilla, Colombia); the corresponding ethical and methodological rigor was kept. Results: the ANOVA results were not significant in the Academic Year factor and in the interaction (p=0.261), but significant by Gender. It was observed that behavior was different in both genders. The masculine gender tends to descend between the first and third undergraduate year and female gender also descends between first and second undergraduate year to later reach the average levels of empathy of the male gender. Conclusion: the results obtained show that the means of the variable studied do not show a great difference between the different undergraduate courses, nevertheless, a slight increase in the fourth undergraduate year is observed. There were significant differences between genders, the scores observed in men students were higher than those obtained from women students.

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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