物理治疗专业学生的同理心分析：一项多地点研究。

Gabard Donald L, Lowe Deborah L, Deusinger Susan S, Stelzner Denise M, Crandall Sonia J

Department of Physical Therapy, Chapman University, Orange, California, USA.

J Allied Health. 2013 Spring;42(1):10-6.

BACKGROUND

Empathy is a human emotion that is important in the effective provision of health care and amenable to change through explicit and implicit experiences in an individual's life. This study measured levels of empathy in students pursuing doctoral degrees in physical therapy and compared the influence of professional education at different institutions on these levels.

METHODS

Our cross-sectional, two-cohort, multisite study used a modified version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Student Version, to investigate empathy levels at enrollment, mid-curriculum, and end-of-curriculum. Statistical tests of differences were performed between institutions, within institutions for each cohort across the three time points, and within institutions between cohorts. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and the least squared difference test. Alpha was set at 0.05 for main test of difference and 0.04 for all post-hoc tests.

RESULTS

For both cohorts, empathy levels differed significantly between institutions at program entry (Cohort 1, p=0.0150; Cohort 2, p=0.0273); within institutions the two cohorts were similar at the beginning of the first semester. In Cohort 1, no significant changes occurred within any institution; students at the two institutions with higher entering scores maintained their higher scores at the end of the last didactic semester. Students in Cohort 2 showed significant differences in empathy levels at the end of the last didactic semester within and between institutions (p=0.0251; p<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Empathy levels may differ at enrollment for PT students at different institutions even with similar recruitment approaches and no significant differences in student demographics between institutions. Despite uniform accreditation requirements for curriculum content, significant differences between institutions did exist in the last didactic semester in Cohort 2 but not Cohort 1. The direction and magnitude of such changes were not explained by institutional characteristics. This study challenges assumptions that measurements of empathy in students at one institution can be generalized to students at other institutions and that one cohort in the same institution can predict another cohort.

背景

同理心是一种人类情感，在有效提供医疗保健服务中至关重要，并且可以通过个体生活中的显性和隐性经历而改变。本研究测量了攻读物理治疗博士学位的学生的同理心水平，并比较了不同机构的专业教育对这些水平的影响。

方法

我们的横断面、双队列、多地点研究使用了杰斐逊医生同理心量表学生版的修改版本，来调查入学时、课程中期和课程结束时的同理心水平。对不同机构之间、各队列在三个时间点内机构内部以及各队列之间机构内部进行了差异统计检验。使用描述性统计、方差分析和最小二乘差异检验对数据进行分析。主要差异检验的α设定为0.05，所有事后检验的α设定为0.04。

结果

对于两个队列，在项目入学时不同机构之间的同理心水平存在显著差异（队列1，p = 0.0150；队列2，p = 0.0273）；在机构内部，两个队列在第一学期开始时相似。在队列1中，任何机构内部均未发生显著变化；入学分数较高的两个机构的学生在最后一个理论学期结束时保持了较高的分数。队列2的学生在最后一个理论学期结束时，机构内部和机构之间的同理心水平存在显著差异（p = 0.0251；p < 0.0001）。

结论

即使采用相似的招生方式且不同机构之间学生人口统计学特征无显著差异，不同机构的物理治疗专业学生在入学时的同理心水平可能仍存在差异。尽管课程内容有统一的认证要求，但在队列2的最后一个理论学期，不同机构之间确实存在显著差异，而队列1则没有。这种变化的方向和幅度无法通过机构特征来解释。本研究对以下假设提出了挑战：在一个机构对学生的同理心测量结果可以推广到其他机构的学生，以及同一机构的一个队列可以预测另一个队列。