Williams Brett, Brown Ted, McKenna Lisa, Boyle Malcolm J, Palermo Claire, Nestel Debra, Brightwell Richard, McCall Louise, Russo Verity
Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Adv Med Educ Pract. 2014 May 3;5:107-13. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S57569. eCollection 2014.
Empathy is paramount in the health care setting, optimizing communication and rapport with patients. Recent empirical evidence suggests that empathy is associated with improved clinical outcomes. Therefore, given the importance of empathy in the health care setting, gaining a better understanding of students' attitudes and self-reported empathy is important. The objective of this study was to examine self-reported empathy levels of students enrolled in different health disciplines from two large Australian universities.
A total of 1,111 students from two different universities enrolled in eight different health professions were administered the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy - Health Profession Students version, a 20-item 7-point Likert scale questionnaire to evaluate self-reported empathy levels.
A total of 1,111 students participated in this study. The majority of participants were from Monash University (n=771), with 340 students from Edith Cowan University. No statistically significant differences were found between universities: Monash University (mean 110.1, standard deviation [SD] 11.8); Edith Cowan University (mean 109.2, SD 13.3, P=0.306). The mean female empathy score (mean 110.8, SD 11.7) was significantly higher than the mean male score (mean 105.3, SD 13.5; P<0.0001; d=0.44). Paramedic students had significantly lower empathy scores (mean 106.3, SD 12.73) than all other participants except nursing students (P<0.0001).
Results relating to sex are reflective of previous studies. There is some discrepancy in results relating to empathy and its incline/decline as students progress through a program. Further study is warranted to explore why there are variations in empathy levels in students of different health disciplines.
同理心在医疗环境中至关重要，它能优化与患者的沟通及融洽关系。近期的实证证据表明，同理心与改善临床结果相关。因此，鉴于同理心在医疗环境中的重要性，更好地了解学生的态度和自我报告的同理心很重要。本研究的目的是调查来自澳大利亚两所大型大学不同健康学科的学生自我报告的同理心水平。
来自两所不同大学、就读于八个不同健康专业的1111名学生接受了《医生同理心杰斐逊量表——健康专业学生版》的测试，这是一份包含20个项目的7点李克特量表问卷，用于评估自我报告的同理心水平。
共有1111名学生参与了本研究。大多数参与者来自莫纳什大学（n = 771），340名学生来自伊迪斯科文大学。两所大学之间未发现统计学上的显著差异：莫纳什大学（均值110.1，标准差[SD] 11.8）；伊迪斯科文大学（均值109.2，SD 13.3，P = 0.306）。女性的平均同理心得分（均值110.8，SD 11.7）显著高于男性的平均得分（均值105.3，SD 13.5；P < 0.0001；d = 0.44）。护理专业学生除外，护理人员专业的学生同理心得分（均值106.3，SD 12.73）显著低于所有其他参与者（P < 0.0001）。
与性别相关的结果与先前的研究一致。随着学生在课程中不断进步，在同理心及其上升/下降方面的结果存在一些差异。有必要进一步研究，以探讨不同健康学科的学生同理心水平存在差异的原因。
