Empathy in UK Medical Students: Differences by Gender, Medical Year and Specialty Interest

Abstract

The importance of empathetic communication in the context of patient care has been suggested as a crucial element in the delivery of high-quality medical care. Although some countries have measured empathy among medical students, little is known formally about the state of affairs regarding empathy in the UK with regard to gender, medical years and speciality. This paper presents the results from a cross-sectional study that explored the relationship between undergraduate medical students' empathy scores relevant to gender, medical school year and future career ambitions. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, a self-administered questionnaire, was used for collecting data. It was decided to incorporate the scale into a web application that was only accessible through a confidential hyperlink. A total of 853 (68.2%) medical students completed the survey. Female students (n=470) scored significantly (t((819))=-6.63; 95% CI=-0.30, -0.16) higher than male students (n=351). No significant differences were observed between empathy mean scores and medical school year. Students choosing people-oriented specialities had significantly higher mean scores in comparison to students preferring technology oriented specialities. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. The hypothesis that female students would score higher than male students was supported by the results. The findings did not support the hypothesis that empathy scores decline during the medical school years. Finally, the findings did support the hypothesis that those preferring peopleoriented specialities would score higher on the empathy scale than students choosing technology oriented specialities. Some recommendations are made and the limitations of study are discussed.

Reconsidering the ‘Decline’ of Dental Student Empathy within the Course in Latin America

“…As for the regression curves found in this study, it is possible to note that only in universities of Group C: Magdalena (Colombia) and Concepcion (Chile) the value of the means of empathy increases until the third year and then decrease steadily, are the only ones that coincide with those works that have raised a decline of empathy from third year. 1,2,7,9,[29][30][31] A similar situation occurs in the University of San Martin (Colombia) that grows until the fourth and then decreases in the fifth year (group D). The other dental schools, with the exception of group A, suffer a decline in some of the early years, but then a steadily increase of …”

Is the Empathy Level of Medical Students at KAU Changeable along their Study Years? What is behind this Change?

“…Education and Health Careat Jefferson Medical College, to measure the level of empathy among physicians and other health professionals [3].The hypothesis that empathy declines as students' progress through medical school has previously investigated in many Asian countries like Japan [4], South Korea [5], China [6], Iran [7], Bangladesh [8] and India [9], some Arabic countries as Kuwait [10], as well as other countries like UK [11], USA [12], Brazil [13] and German [14] by using the student version of Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE). To our knowledge, the empathy with patients among the Saudi medical students has not been studied till now.…”

Erosion of empathy during medical training by gender. A cross-sectional study

“…[13][14][15] According to some authors, this process is normal during medical training and may be considered a model of empathic behavior. Some studies have found empirical evidence of the presence of such erosion; however, others [16][17][18][19][20] have demonstrated that such phenomenon does not occur. In the specialized bibliography, there is no consensus that erosion of empathy could be conceptualized into an empirical law or scientific fact.…”