Exploring the missing link - Empathy among dental students: An institutional cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background:Empathy plays an important role in healthy dentist and patient relationship. Hence, the aim of the study is to (a) to measure the self-reported empathy levels among dental undergraduate and postgraduate students. (b) To review the trend of changes in empathy level with experience, age, and gender among dental undergraduate and postgraduate students.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was carried out in two private dental institutions situated in Sri Ganganagar, India, with a sample size of 978. Data were obtained from the 1st to final year (BDS), interns, and postgraduate students from January to March 2015. An empathy level of students was assessed by the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy – Health Profession Students Version Questionnaire. An exploratory factor analysis using Kaiser's criteria was undertaken to appraise the construct validity and dimensionality. Based on the results of the factor analysis, three factors were selected; labeled as perspective taking, compassionate care, and standing in patient's shoes.Results:The majority of the students was female in a equivalent ratio of 1338:618. There were significant differences in empathy scores by gender and age (P < 0.01). The lowest and highest mean empathy scores were found in postgraduate (mean = 108.77, standard deviation [SD] =9.12) and 1st year (mean = 117.23, SD = 14.19) dental students, respectively.Conclusion:Dental educators should consider the likely decline in empathy among students as early as possible and adopt communication teaching strategies to promote the development of empathy and reduce the risk of further decline.

Does Postgraduate Clinical Training Reduce Empathy Among Japanese Trainee Dentists? A Multi-perspective Assessment

“…Although many studies reported declining self-assessed empathy at the clinical phase in undergraduate education [12,[22][23][24] as well as postgraduate residency [25,26], unchanged stable empathy was found in our study, which is consistent with very few previous studies [27]. Some studies reported that empathy of the resident, measured using the same JSE, was comparable to our results [28,29], and others reported increased results [27,30]. As mentioned in an earlier study [31], the timing of clinical training varies by country, as does the number of years it takes to graduate.…”

Does postgraduate clinical training reduce empathy among Japanese trainee dentists? A multi-perspective assessment

“…Although many studies reported declining self-assessed empathy at the clinical phase in both undergraduate education [12,[15][16][17] and during postgraduate residency [18,29], unchanged stable empathy was found in our study, which was consistent with very few previous studies [30]. Some studies reported that the resident's empathy score, measured using the same JSE, was comparable to our results [19,31], and others reported increased results [30,32]. As mentioned in an earlier study [33], the timing of clinical training varies by country, as does the number of years it takes to graduate.…”

“…Most previous studies have used a single measurement for empathy, especially self-reported measures [12,13,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. This may provide a limited understanding of empathy, because it is a multidimensional attribute.…”

Dental Students’ Perceptions of Dentist-Patient Interactions: An Exploration of Empathy in Dental Students

“…A study by Konrath et al showed that undergraduate college students have less empathy than the past generations (6). Although widely studied among medical students and those of other health disciplines, to date, empathy has received limited attention within the domain of dental education (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Most of the limited published dental research report moderate overall empathy scores and document that empathy may decrease throughout students' dental education tenure; however, varying study designs make accurate comparisons difficult (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13).…”