School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia.
School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Aust Occup Ther J. 2022 Dec;69(6):703-713. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12833. Epub 2022 Aug 10.
Australian and New Zealand accreditation standards for occupational therapy courses mandate consumer involvement in the design, delivery, and evaluation of courses. Consumer involvement in medical, dental, and nursing education has been evidenced as a factor for increasing student empathy. To date, there has been no known research on the impact of mental health consumer involvement on occupational therapy students' empathy. The aim of this study was to investigate if occupational therapy students who receive teaching from a mental health consumer demonstrate higher levels of empathy compared with students who receive teaching delivered by occupational therapy academics.
Pre-post, quasi experimental, two group comparison design was used to measure second-year student empathy pre and post a consumer-led teaching tutorial. Students (N = 217) were randomised into two groups across three university campuses: 'teaching as usual group' (control) or 'consumer-led' group (experimental group). The Jefferson Scale of Empathy was used to measure student empathy.
N = 138 matched scales were returned. Little difference in empathy scales was detected between groups. The 'consumer-led' group increased for the empathy scale by 3.4(95% CI: 0.7,6.1, p = 0.014) but was not statistically significant compared to 1.3(95% CI: -1.0,3.5, p = 0.267) for the control group. Both groups scored highly on empathy.
This study found that occupational therapy students had pre-existing high levels of empathy. The challenge for future research is to identify appropriate ways to measure the impact of mental health consumer involvement on occupational therapy curriculum and students.
澳大利亚和新西兰职业治疗课程认证标准要求消费者参与课程的设计、实施和评估。消费者在医学、牙科和护理教育中的参与已被证明是提高学生同理心的一个因素。迄今为止，尚未有研究表明心理健康消费者的参与对职业治疗学生同理心的影响。本研究旨在调查接受心理健康消费者教学的职业治疗学生与接受职业治疗学术教学的学生相比，同理心是否更高。
采用前后测、准实验、两组比较设计，在消费者主导的教学教程前后测量二年级学生的同理心。学生（N=217）在三个大学校园随机分为两组：“常规教学组”（对照组）或“消费者主导组”（实验组）。使用杰斐逊同理心量表（Jefferson Scale of Empathy）来衡量学生的同理心。
共收回 138 份匹配量表。两组之间的同理心量表差异不大。“消费者主导”组的同理心量表增加了 3.4（95%置信区间：0.7,6.1，p=0.014），但与对照组的 1.3（95%置信区间：-1.0,3.5，p=0.267）相比，差异无统计学意义。两组学生的同理心得分都很高。
本研究发现，职业治疗学生的同理心水平较高。未来研究的挑战是确定适当的方法来衡量心理健康消费者参与对职业治疗课程和学生的影响。
