Movement and Health Research Group, Departamento de Medicina Física y Farmacología, Facultad de Ciencias de La Salud, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Spain.
Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, Servicio Canario de La Salud, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 10;14(1):13349. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-64148-8.
Empathy and assertiveness are two essential soft skills for any healthcare professional's competence and ethical development. It has been shown that empathy can be influenced throughout the training of a future healthcare professional, particularly during the clinical placement period. This research aims to assess fourth-year physiotherapy students' empathic and assertive development before and after clinical placement. A longitudinal observational study was conducted with fourth-year physiotherapy students during the academic year 2022/2023. A preliminary assessment of empathy and assertiveness levels was carried out before the start of the clinical placement and at the end of the placement using the Individual Reactivity Index to assess empathy and the Rathus Test to assess assertiveness. The results show a statistically significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) in both the empathy subscales of perspective-taking and empathic-concern between the pre- and postassessment, as well as an inverse correlation between the empathy subscale of personal distress and assertiveness. It is concluded that students show adequate results in empathy and assertiveness. However, there is some influence of clinical practice on the development of empathy, and future intervention studies need to be considered. Furthermore, students with higher levels of assertiveness have lower levels of personal distress, suggesting that assertiveness is closely related to empathy.
同理心和果断性是任何医疗保健专业人员能力和道德发展的两个基本软技能。已经表明，同理心可以在未来医疗保健专业人员的培训过程中得到影响，特别是在临床实习期间。本研究旨在评估第四年物理治疗专业学生在临床实习前后的同理心和果断性发展。2022/2023 学年对第四年物理治疗专业学生进行了纵向观察研究。在临床实习开始前和结束时使用个体反应指数评估同理心和 Rathus 测试评估果断性，对同理心和果断性水平进行初步评估。结果表明，在前后评估中，同理心的观点采择和共情关怀子量表以及个人困扰与果断性之间呈负相关，同理心子量表都存在统计学上的显著差异（p≤0.05）。研究结论是学生在同理心和果断性方面表现出了足够的能力。然而，临床实践对同理心的发展有一定的影响，需要考虑未来的干预研究。此外，果断性水平较高的学生个人困扰程度较低，这表明果断性与同理心密切相关。
