Does the perception of empathy change in medical students, or does it decline as a whole?

Abstract

Introduction: Research over the past 20 years has recognized that doctors' capability to empathize with patients is a vital factor of effective health care. Accordingly, teaching and strengthening empathy was included in the undergraduate medical education curricula. There is evidence that empathy varies among the genders during undergraduate medical training and some studies also indicate a change in empathy levels as students advance in medical college.

Objective: To determine whether differences of empathy levels in medical students from pre-clinical and clinical classes are actual or perceptual and whether differences in empathy scores are gender based.

Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at Rehman Medical College, Peshawar. The students of second year and final year MBBS sessions were included in the study. A total of 139 students took part in the survey; 75 students were from the final year and 64 students from second year.  The Student’s Version of Jefferson Empathy Scale was used. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 22. Associations between empathy scores, clinical exposure and gender were studied with t-test, and chi-square test, with p≤0.05 indicating significance.

Results: There were no significant differences in the overall empathy scores between second year and final year students, or by gender. The perception of empathy in both classes and genders, however, was different. The majority of second year students defined it as “patient-doctor relationship” while final year defined empathy as “just the right concern”. Female students had significant difference of opinion from male students in many but not all items in the questionnaire.

Conclusion: The study did not support the contention that empathy levels decline among medical students with academic year of studies, nor that there are gender differences in empathy. However, the perception of empathy differed in several items by gender and year of MBBS study.