Empathy in Medical Students Is Moderated by Openness to Spirituality

Damiano, Rodolfo Furlan; DiLalla, Lisabeth F.; Lucchetti, Giancarlo; Dorsey, J. Kevin

doi:10.1080/10401334.2016.1241714

Cited by 32 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This possible explanation is reasonable, but it does not fully explain the observations. As indicated above, the CC component is emotional-affective and can therefore be stimulated by spirituality (22)(23) , reasoning and pro-social attitudes (24) , morality (25) , altruism (26) , assuming universal values and parental support (27) , and culture (28) , among other factors. Therefore, all the above-mentioned aspects should be studied to explain two "subtle" questions: a) How have these factors worked on women from the USS; and b) How have they operated in women from the UM, and men in both universities?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic decline and training in nursing students

Narváez

Calzadilla-Núñez

López-Orellana

et al. 2020

Rev. esc. enferm. USP

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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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic decline and training in nursing students

Narváez

Calzadilla-Núñez

López-Orellana

et al. 2020

Rev. esc. enferm. USP

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“…31 Similarly, Damiano and colleagues evaluated 106 medical students in the United States and found that spiritual openness was predictive of empathy scores. 32 Our study suggests that both pharmacy and nursing students see matters of spirituality as being integral to patient care; however, this impression appears to be stronger among nursing students. Further research is warranted to determine whether these perceptions lead students to see connections between matters of spirituality and patient care during their professional education.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Pharmacy and Nursing Students’ Perceptions Regarding the Role of Spirituality in Professional Education and Practice

Jacob

Huynh

White

et al. 2020

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

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Objective. To compare first-year student pharmacists and nursing students with respect to their spirituality and perceptions of the role of spirituality in professional education and practice. Methods. This was a five-year, cross-sectional study. All first-year student pharmacists and nursing students were invited to participate in the survey during the first week of the fall semester in 2012 through 2016. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results. A total of 1,084 students participated, including 735 student pharmacists and 349 nursing students. Significant differences in baseline demographics were noted between the groups. Students in both groups reported having frequent spiritual experiences. A significantly larger percentage of nursing students reported these experiences compared to student pharmacists. Furthermore, compared with student pharmacists, nursing students were more likely to anticipate that spirituality would play a role in their academic course work (76% vs 58%) and professional practice (90% vs 74%). Conclusion. Student pharmacists and nursing students reported having frequent spiritual experiences, and both groups anticipated that spirituality would be incorporated into their education and professional practice.

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“…14 Our results are consistent with previous research that found increased empathy for patients among medical students after they completed coursework in empathy and spirituality, as well as results indicating medical students with greater religiosity and spiritual openness also had greater empathy in these cases. [11][12]20 Although we did not find that considering their own spirituality and beliefs helped them feel more comfortable discussing their patient's religious issue, the act of considering their own spirituality and beliefs seemed to help them get in touch with their own spirituality and humanity and with that of their patient, based on their comments about feeling connected and empathic with their patients. Perhaps this personal consideration beforehand helped them focus less on worrying about doing the social history, instead being more grounded with themselves and the human-to-human experience of the SP encounter, opening them emotionally to feeling more empathic and connected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…10 Supporting this approach, medical students who are religious and/or spiritually open themselves have greater empathy with their patients and tend to use their religiosity and/or spirituality to bear the emotional impact of their patients' suffering. [11][12] In contrast with the literature indicating low rates of physicians' addressing their patients' religious and spiritual concerns, medical students favor experiential curricula intended to support their own personal religious and/or spiritual growth and values. 13 Medical education needs to teach students how to comfortably and capably integrate their patients' religion and spirituality into their care, in order to best provide truly patient-centered care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Medical students’ personal experiences, religion, and spirituality explain their (dis)comfort with a patient’s religious needs

Schmidt

Eickmeyer

Henningsen³

et al. 2020

Can. Med. Ed. J

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Background: Physicians often avoid discussing patients’ religious and spiritual concerns, even though most patients (i.e., 50-94%) want integrated care. To address this gap, medical students interviewed a Standardized Patient (SP) who was upset because the daughter did not confront her fiancée about converting to Orthodox Judaism. Students reflected on how their own religion and spirituality affected engaging with their patient. Methods: With a 97% response rate, 231 first-year medical students responded to open-ended questions about their patient encounter. For this quantitative content analysis, we used inductive reasoning, identifying three themes: (1) impact of students’ own religion on their comfort, (2) change in comfort, and (3) their learning. We used deductive reasoning to compare qualitative results from half of the students who began the curriculum with a questionnaire about their own spirituality with the other students completing afterwards. Results: Most students said being religious positively influenced their comfort, whether they were also Orthodox Jewish or from a different religion. Among uncomfortable students (6.5%), some attributed this to not being religious. Some students (4.8%) grew more comfortable discussing the religious issue, and 18.2% became uncomfortable due to lacking knowledge of Orthodox Judaism and the awkwardness of the topic. Students who had completed the questionnaire beforehand gave more comments about connecting with their patients than students who completed the questionnaire afterwards (X2=11.047, p<.001). Conclusions: Students’ own religion influenced their comfort with discussing religious concerns, with some feeling more connected and others becoming uncomfortable. This finding helps inform medical educators about teaching mind-body-spirit care.

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Empathy in Medical Students Is Moderated by Openness to Spirituality

Cited by 32 publications

References 47 publications

Empathic decline and training in nursing students

Empathic decline and training in nursing students

Pharmacy and Nursing Students’ Perceptions Regarding the Role of Spirituality in Professional Education and Practice

Medical students’ personal experiences, religion, and spirituality explain their (dis)comfort with a patient’s religious needs

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