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When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy
PURPOSE: Empathy is an important skill for physicians as it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. This study assessed self-reported empathy by medical students across all four years of medical school and potential differences in empathy across students interested in different subsp...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10020755/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37251206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01768-1 |
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author | Dinoff, Adam Lynch, Sean Hameed, Azeb Shahul Koestler, Jennifer Ferrando, Stephen J. Klepacz, Lidia |
author_facet | Dinoff, Adam Lynch, Sean Hameed, Azeb Shahul Koestler, Jennifer Ferrando, Stephen J. Klepacz, Lidia |
author_sort | Dinoff, Adam |
collection | PubMed |
description | PURPOSE: Empathy is an important skill for physicians as it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. This study assessed self-reported empathy by medical students across all four years of medical school and potential differences in empathy across students interested in different subspecialties. METHOD: All medical students enrolled at New York Medical College in August 2020 were invited to participate in this study. Participants completed the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. RESULTS: A total of 179 medical students participated. Mean empathy score in fourth-year students was significantly lower than that in first-year students. Mean empathy score was greatest among students interested in Pediatrics and was greater in participants who identified as women. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported empathy may be lower in upper-year medical students when compared to lower-year students. The potential reasons for lower empathy in the later years of training are discussed. A systematic curriculum for teaching and maintaining empathy should be developed and uniformly implemented across medical schools to combat a potential decline in empathy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10020755 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100207552023-03-17 When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy Dinoff, Adam Lynch, Sean Hameed, Azeb Shahul Koestler, Jennifer Ferrando, Stephen J. Klepacz, Lidia Med Sci Educ Original Research PURPOSE: Empathy is an important skill for physicians as it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. This study assessed self-reported empathy by medical students across all four years of medical school and potential differences in empathy across students interested in different subspecialties. METHOD: All medical students enrolled at New York Medical College in August 2020 were invited to participate in this study. Participants completed the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. RESULTS: A total of 179 medical students participated. Mean empathy score in fourth-year students was significantly lower than that in first-year students. Mean empathy score was greatest among students interested in Pediatrics and was greater in participants who identified as women. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported empathy may be lower in upper-year medical students when compared to lower-year students. The potential reasons for lower empathy in the later years of training are discussed. A systematic curriculum for teaching and maintaining empathy should be developed and uniformly implemented across medical schools to combat a potential decline in empathy. Springer US 2023-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10020755/ /pubmed/37251206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01768-1 Text en © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Association of Medical Science Educators 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Dinoff, Adam Lynch, Sean Hameed, Azeb Shahul Koestler, Jennifer Ferrando, Stephen J. Klepacz, Lidia When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title | When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title_full | When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title_fullStr | When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title_full_unstemmed | When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title_short | When Did the Empathy Die?: Examining the Correlation Between Length of Medical Training and Level of Empathy |
title_sort | when did the empathy die?: examining the correlation between length of medical training and level of empathy |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10020755/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37251206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01768-1 |
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