Exploring empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

Abstract

Background: Empathy is an important factor in communication between healthcare provider and patient. Previous studies have shown that empathy benefits patient care in multiple ways. Empathy allows a space of decreased vulnerability and, as a result, builds trust in healthcare relationships. It fosters open communication that leads to improved patient care; improves patient satisfaction; and buffers healthcare provider burnout. This study aimed to determine the empathy levels demonstrated by paramedic students to patients with various medical conditions, and to compare these findings with those of previous studies. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design of a convenience sample of first and second year paramedic students in a community college programme in Ontario, Canada. The Medical Condition Regard Scale (MCRS) was used to measure empathy levels in these students across five medical conditions: physical disability, intellectual disability, suicide attempt, mental health emergency, and substance abuse. Results: A total of 43 students participated in the study; 27 males and 15 females (1 unknown). Males demonstrated a mean empathy score of 232.44 while females demonstrated a mean of 266.4. Across the five medical conditions, substance abuse had the lowest mean empathy score (42.88), followed by mental health emergency (49.58), suicide attempt (49.47), intellectual disability (50.42) and physical disability (53.0). Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that paramedic students demonstrated the lowest levels of empathy towards patients suffering from substance abuse issues, and the highest levels of empathy towards patients with a physical disability. Male paramedic students are less empathetic than their female peers, and second year paramedic students are less empathetic than their first year counterparts. These results provide an insight into paramedic student attitudes in Canada, and provide a foundation for further studies.

Empathy in Japanese paramedicine students: A cross‐sectional study

“…This study demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in empathy for each subsequent year level of the Japanese undergraduate paramedic program. The same tendency of decreasing empathy levels has been shown in studies of Canadian paramedic students (Kus et al, 2018;Pagano et al, 2018), but not, however, within…”

“…In comparison, multiple Australian studies of paramedic students using the English version of the JSE have shown the mean self‐reported levels of empathy to lie between 104.4 and 110.42 (Williams et al, 2014; Williams, Boyle, & Earl, 2013). A comparison with Canadian paramedic students is difficult as studies of this population have used a different measurement tool, the MCRS, to examine empathy (Kus et al, 2018; Pagano et al, 2018). However, the comparison of Japanese and Australian studies reflects the situation with medical students where Asian medical students typically demonstrate lower self‐reported levels of empathy than Western medical students (Park et al, 2015; Quince, Thiemann, Benson, & Hyde, 2016).…”

Empathy in paramedic practice: an overview

“…These studies have generally indicated lower empathy scores towards substance users and mental health emergencies. Female students tend to demonstrate higher empathy scores than males (Kus et al, 2018;Pagano et al, 2019;Williams et al, 2012Williams et al, , 2015a. These findings generally align with studies in other healthcare professions students (Brown et al, 2010;Fjortoft et al, 2011;McKenna et al, 2012), while paramedic students tend to display overall lower empathy scores when compared to other healthcare students (Williams et al, 2014(Williams et al, , 2015a.…”

“…Results of studies in paramedic students consistently recommend further empathy training and education (Kus et al, 2018;Pagano et al, 2019;Williams et al, 2014Williams et al, , 2015a in light of low empathy scores demonstrated towards certain vulnerable populations. Empathy is an interpersonal skill that can be learned and improved upon through methods that target interpersonal skill building, self-reflection and constructive criticism.…”

Non‐technical skills in paramedicine: A scoping review

“…The majority (73%) of these studies were conducted by researchers from Australia and Canada, with over half (53%) conducted on undergraduate paramedic students. Four studies used the Medical Condition Regard Scale to determine student paramedic responses to certain presentations (Kus, Gosling, Wilson, & Batt, 2018; Pagano et al, 2018; Williams et al, 2012b; Williams, Boyle, & Earl, 2013). It was consistent across all included literature that substance abuse scored the lowest empathetic responses from paramedic students.…”