Levels of empathy in undergraduate emergency health, nursing, and midwifery students: a longitudinal study

Williams, Brett; Brown, Ted; Boyle, Malcolm; McKenna, Lisa; Palermo, Claire; Etherington, Jamie

doi:10.2147/amep.s66681

Cited by 74 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Regarding differences in empathy with age, Beadle et al (2013) posits that older adults portray more motivation to help others than younger people, and this marked difference was seen at the age of 24. While our study demonstrated no differences among age groups, previous studies have demonstrated differences, with higher empathy scores demonstrated by middle aged participants (Williams et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2014) Differences in empathy scores between first and second year students were also observable in our study. This trend has previously been demonstrated in nurses, paramedics, physicians, and dentists (Hojat et al, 2004, Nunes et al, 2011, Williams et al, 2012.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

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Exploring empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

Kus

Gosling

Wilson

et al. 2018

International Paramedic Practice

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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.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

“…Previous studies in healthcare students in Australia (Williams et al 2012;McKenna et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2014;Williams et al, 2016) have demonstrated that empathy scores are low among paramedic students, scores decrease as one progresses through paramedic education, and empathy scores vary significantly for certain medical conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Exploring empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

Kus

Gosling

Wilson

et al. 2018

International Paramedic Practice

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“…During the review, it was observed that in most studies women had higher levels of empathy than men, in both students and health professionals 65,6,68,22,70,23,39,73,35,75,26,78,79 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, could educational programs and studies of literature and the arts enhance empathy? 79 Aim To examine the extent and nature of empathy among emergency health, nursing and midwifery students at one Australian university and to investigate the longitudinal changes in empathy levels across the course of the study.…”

Section: Recommendations For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is empathy an important attribute of midwives and other health professionals?: A review

2019

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INTRODUCTION This paper is a report of a systematic review to identify and analyze studies of the measurement of empathy in midwives and other health professionals. Empathy has been recognized as an important factor in patient care, with positive outcomes for both patients and health professionals. There is a debate on the definition of empathy, on its measurement and on the possibility of improvement. METHODS Searches were made of the CINAHL, SCOPUS, PubMed and PsychINFO databases using the terms empathy, clinical, midwifery, nursing, medical students, measurement, and health professionals, singly or in combination, to identify literature published in English between 2002-2015. The included papers were critically reviewed and a narrative synthesis was conducted. RESULTS In all, 22 papers met the inclusion criteria by studies that were conducted to measure the levels of empathy in a variety of health professionals and students. Their scores were analyzed in correlation with their sociodemographic factors. CONCLUSIONS Despite numerous studies, many correlations but also differences exist, indicating the complexity of empathy and the need to further study it. AFFILIATION

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“…There are a few studies in the relevant literature exploring the levels of empathy in student midwives [8], and professional midwives [9,10]. At the same time, there was no validated instrument designed to assess the levels of empathy specifically for midwives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Midwifery empathy scale: development and validation for a greek sample

Vivilaki

Fifli

Charitou

et al. 2016

J of Compassionate Health Care

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Background: In recent years, a growing number of studies report on the importance of empathy to women's care. The Midwifery Empathy Scale (M.E.S) was developed in order to study and record the levels of empathy of professional and student midwives. The purpose of our study was to validate this instrument and determine the factor structure and reliability. Methods: The study sample (n = 242) consisted of professional (n = 114) and student midwives (n = 128) of 3 Maternity Hospitals (public and private) of Athens. Results: The exploratory factor analysis on the 25 item of Midwifery Empathy Scale (MES) revealed seven orthogonal factors (KMO Measure of Sample Adequacy = 0.817 and Bartlett's test of sphericity = 1508.169, df = 300, p < 0.0001. The MES showed medium overall internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha value: 0.546, p < 0.0001). The internal consistency characteristics of MES demonstrated good reliability. Our findings attest to the multidimensionality of MES, and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) demonstrated that the 7 factor model offers a very good fit to our data. Conclusion: Our data indicate that the Midwifery Empathy Scale (MES) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the levels of empathy of professional and student midwives for both clinical and research practices.

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Levels of empathy in undergraduate emergency health, nursing, and midwifery students: a longitudinal study

Cited by 74 publications

References 38 publications

Exploring empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

Exploring empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

Is empathy an important attribute of midwives and other health professionals?: A review

Midwifery empathy scale: development and validation for a greek sample

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