San-Martín Montserrat, Delgado-Bolton Roberto, Vivanco Luis
Faculty of Social Sciences of Melilla, University of Granada, Melilla, Spain.
Education Committee Board, University Hospital San Pedro, Logroño, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2017 Nov 21;8:2018. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02018. eCollection 2017.
Empathy in the context of patient care is defined as a predominantly cognitive attribute that involves an understanding of the patient's experiences, concerns, and perspectives, combined with a capacity to communicate this understanding and an intention to help. In medical education, it is recognized that empathy can be improved by interventional approaches. In this sense, a semiotic-based curriculum could be an important didactic tool for improving medical empathy. The main purpose of this study was to determine if in medical schools where a semiotic-based curriculum is offered, the empathetic orientation of medical students improves as a consequence of the acquisition and development of students' communication skills that are required in clinician-patient encounters. This quasi-experimental study was conducted in three medical schools of the Dominican Republic that offer three different medical curricula: (i) a theoretical and practical semiotic-based curriculum; (ii) a theoretical semiotic-based curriculum; and (iii) a curriculum without semiotic courses. The Jefferson scale of empathy was administered in two different moments to students enrolled in pre-clinical cycles of those institutions. Data was subjected to comparative statistical analysis and logistic regression analysis. The study included 165 students (55 male and 110 female). Comparison analysis showed statistically significant differences in the development of empathy among groups ( < 0.001). Logistic regression confirmed that gender, age, and a semiotic-based curriculum contributed toward the enhancement of empathy. These findings demonstrate the importance of medical semiotics as a didactic teaching method for improving beginners' empathetic orientation in patients' care.
在患者护理背景下，同理心被定义为一种主要的认知属性，它涉及对患者经历、关切和观点的理解，以及传达这种理解的能力和帮助的意愿。在医学教育中，人们认识到可以通过干预方法来提高同理心。从这个意义上说，基于符号学的课程可能是提高医学同理心的重要教学工具。本研究的主要目的是确定在提供基于符号学课程的医学院校中，医学生的同理心取向是否会因获得和发展医患交流中所需的沟通技巧而得到改善。这项准实验研究在多米尼加共和国的三所医学院进行，这三所医学院提供三种不同的医学课程：（i）基于符号学的理论与实践课程；（ii）基于符号学的理论课程；（iii）没有符号学课程。对这些机构临床前阶段的学生在两个不同时间进行了杰斐逊同理心量表测试。对数据进行了比较统计分析和逻辑回归分析。该研究包括165名学生（55名男性和110名女性）。比较分析显示，各组之间在同理心发展方面存在统计学上的显著差异（<0.001）。逻辑回归证实，性别、年龄和基于符号学的课程有助于提高同理心。这些发现表明医学符号学作为一种教学方法对于提高初学者在患者护理中的同理心取向具有重要意义。
