Benabbas Roshanak
MD, Center for Educational Research in Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2016 Nov 7;30:439. eCollection 2016.
Empathy is an important element of physician-patient communication. Empathy is linked to a number of attributes such as patient treatment compliance and satisfaction, better history taking and physical examination and therefore achieving better clinical outcomes. Previous research indicates that self-reported empathy among medical students declines during the course of their medical education and this decrease in empathy particularly happens when students enter clinical training. Very limited data is available on the concept of empathy among Iranian medical students. The aim of the present study was to investigate empathy among Iranian medical students and the possible differences between students of different levels of medical education. The data were collected using convenient sampling. The Jefferson Questionnaire of Physicians Empathy-student version as well as a demographic questionnaire was distributed among 500 medical students in different levels of medical education at medical school of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Response rate was 91.8% (459/500). Of 459 responders, 150 were first and second year students (Basic sciences), 170 were third to fifth year students (trainees) and 139 sixth and seventh year students (Interns). Sixty nine percent (n=318) were female and 31% (n=141) male. The mean score (SD) of empathy was 101 (15.6). The difference between mean score of empathy of female and male medical students was not significant (101.8 in females vs. 100 in males). The mean score of empathy in "interns" was significantly lower than both "trainees" and "basic sciences students" (96.2, 102 and 104, respectively p<0.05). The results of this study indicate that the empathy score of interns is significantly lower than other medical students. A longitudinal study is needed to test variations in students' empathy throughout medical school.
同理心是医患沟通的重要元素。同理心与诸多属性相关联，如患者的治疗依从性和满意度、更完善的病史采集与体格检查，进而带来更好的临床疗效。先前的研究表明，医学生自我报告的同理心在医学教育过程中会下降，而这种同理心的下降尤其发生在学生进入临床培训阶段时。关于伊朗医学生同理心概念的数据非常有限。本研究的目的是调查伊朗医学生的同理心以及不同医学教育水平学生之间可能存在的差异。数据通过便利抽样收集。《杰斐逊医生同理心问卷 - 学生版》以及一份人口统计学问卷被分发给伊朗医科大学医学院不同医学教育水平的500名医学生。回复率为91.8%（459/500）。在459名回复者中，150名是一、二年级学生（基础科学阶段），170名是三至五年级学生（实习医生阶段），139名是六、七年级学生（住院医生阶段）。69%（n = 318）为女性，31%（n = 141）为男性。同理心的平均得分（标准差）为101（15.6）。女医学生和男医学生同理心平均得分的差异不显著（女性为101.8，男性为100）。“住院医生”的同理心平均得分显著低于“实习医生”和“基础科学阶段学生”（分别为96.2、102和104，p<0.05）。本研究结果表明住院医生的同理心得分显著低于其他医学生。需要进行一项纵向研究来测试医学生在整个医学院期间同理心的变化情况。
