Tiwari Kritika, Agarwal Neeraj, Pandey Sanjay
Community Medicine, Army College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, IND.
Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bibinagar, Bibinagar, IND.
Cureus. 2023 Jun 8;15(6):e40159. doi: 10.7759/cureus.40159. eCollection 2023 Jun.
Background Clinical empathy is standing in the patient's shoes and perceiving his/her emotions to experience the patient's feelings. Practicing empathy ensures an enticing prospect in patient care. This study was done among undergraduate medical students to assess their empathy level and the factors affecting it. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted with 400 medical students in Bihar, India. Students not willing to participate were excluded from the study. The coding system was designed to strictly maintain anonymity. The study tools included the Jefferson Scale for Physician Empathy - Student Version (JSPES), a semi-structured questionnaire on the general profile, a perceived stress scale (PSS), and a multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS). Participants were allotted 20 minutes to complete the test and submit their responses. Results were expressed as means and standard deviations (SDs), with appropriate statistical tests applied. The data were presented in tables, and statistical significance was checked at a 5% level. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS software. Results The arithmetic mean (±SD) of empathy scores was 99.87±14.71. Empathy was found to be positively correlated with social support and negatively with stress. The factors found to be significantly associated with empathy on univariate analysis were subjected to stepwise multiple linear regression, which provided a six-factor model comprising gender, choice of future specialty, stress, social support, residence, substance abuse, and stay in hospital as an attendant. Conclusions Stress and social support were found to be significant predictors of empathy. The female gender, living in urban areas, and having previous experience of hospital stay as an attendant of a patient were positively associated with empathy. In contrast, choosing a technical branch as a future specialty and substance abuse were negatively associated with empathy. Stress management, enhancement of social support, and avoidance of habit-forming substances could be beneficial in improving empathy among doctors. Since we could only identify a few factors, we recommend further studies on this topic to explore other factors.
背景 临床同理心是设身处地为患者着想，感知其情绪以体会患者的感受。践行同理心能为患者护理带来诱人前景。本研究针对本科医学生开展，以评估他们的同理心水平及其影响因素。
方法 这是一项在印度比哈尔邦对400名医学生进行的横断面研究。不愿参与的学生被排除在研究之外。编码系统旨在严格保持匿名性。研究工具包括杰斐逊医生同理心量表 - 学生版（JSPES）、一份关于一般情况的半结构化问卷、感知压力量表（PSS）和多维感知社会支持量表（MSPSS）。参与者有20分钟时间完成测试并提交答案。结果以均值和标准差（SD）表示，并应用了适当的统计检验。数据以表格形式呈现，在5%的水平上检验统计学显著性。所有统计分析均使用SPSS软件进行。
结果 同理心得分的算术均值（±SD）为99.87±14.71。发现同理心与社会支持呈正相关，与压力呈负相关。在单因素分析中发现与同理心显著相关的因素进行逐步多元线性回归，得出一个六因素模型，包括性别、未来专业选择、压力、社会支持、居住情况、药物滥用以及作为陪护人员的住院经历。
结论 发现压力和社会支持是同理心的重要预测因素。女性、居住在城市地区以及有作为患者陪护人员的住院经历与同理心呈正相关。相比之下，选择技术类专业作为未来专业以及药物滥用与同理心呈负相关。压力管理、增强社会支持以及避免使用成瘾物质可能有助于提高医生的同理心。由于我们仅识别出少数因素，我们建议对此主题进行进一步研究以探索其他因素。
