Student empathy levels across 12 medical and health professions: an interventional study

Abstract

Background: Empathy is a difficult characteristic to define, teach and assess; the 'nebulous' properties of empathic behaviour often means that educators fail to incorporate the explicit teaching and assessment of empathy within the curriculum. One solution suggested is that teaching empathy in an interprofessional education setting is an effective educational approach in developing empathic behaviours. Method: Student participants from Monash University, Deakin University, University of South Australia, and Edith Cowan University completed a self-reporting survey package pre and post two-hour empathy workshop consisting of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy -Health Profession -Student version (JSE-HP-S). Results: A total of 293 students from 12 different medical and health care professions participated in the empathy workshops. The majority of participants were from Monash University n = 230 (78 %), the nursing profession n = 59 (20 %), < 26 years of age n = 215 (73 %) and enrolled in first year studies n = 123 (42 %). Using a paired t-test repeated measure self-reported empathy levels improved at p < 0.0001, mean 114.34 vs. 120.32 (d = 0.22). Conclusion: This project has shown that self-reported empathy levels have been shown to statistically improve following DVD simulation-based workshops.

Physician Empathy Towards Patients: A Survey in Iranian Teaching Hospitals

“…18,19 Standing at the next ranks, the relative scores Our finding that female physicians express higher level of empathy compared with their male counterparts is congruent to several previous studies from various countries. 9,10,[21][22][23] We also observed that physicians with main specialties (internal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatrics specialties) are more empathic toward the patients compared with other physicians. In addition, the level of empathy was found to be higher among physicians with human-centric specialties.…”

“…Age, fertility, and severity of EH in histology are the most important factors determining the treatment option [5]. Most studies have addressed hysterectomy in patients with atypical EH [5], particularly those with PCOS, and have led to conflicting results [5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Evaluation of student empathy level during the first five years of medical education at ankara university

“…Therefore, medical schools may need to pay attention Possible explanation for the highest score observed for "perspective taking" and "compassionate care" subscales might be communication skills training program given in the 2 nd year. There are many studies that shows empathy can be enhanced by effective educational strategies, targeted educational programs, or medical consultations with SPs (Aspegren, 1999;Winefield and Chur-Hansen, 2000;Stepien and Baernstein 2006;Fernandez Olano et al, 2008;Batt Rawden et al, 2013;Hojat et al,2013;Kelm et al, 2014;Schweller et al, 2014;Williams et al;. Williams et al (2015) has shown that self-reported empathy levels have been shown to improve following DVD simulation-based workshops.…”

Empathizing with patients: the role of interaction and narratives in providing better patient care

“…It is strongly argued that the attitudes and practices that deaden empathy need to be removed, and that empathy needs to be retaught to those who have lost it (Hojat et al 2009;Khanuja et al 2011;Pedersen 2010;Singh 2005;Williams et al 2015). Empathy training needs to be introduced as part of the curriculum so that it is perceived by students as a useful skill to be fostered, rather than an extraneous skill that can be neglected.…”