Medical Humanities Coursework Is Associated with Greater Measured Empathy in Medical Students.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Psychology
• Humanities

Background:

• Medical education often leads to a decline in student empathy.
• Developing and maintaining empathy is crucial for effective patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if medical humanities coursework can mitigate empathy loss in medical students.
• To assess the impact of humanities education on empathy development during medical training.

Main Methods:

• An elective Medical Humanities course was offered to students for academic credit.
• The Jefferson Scale of Empathy Student Version (JSE-S) was used to measure empathy.
• Changes in JSE-S scores were compared between students who took humanities courses and those who did not.

Main Results:

• Students in humanities courses demonstrated significantly better empathy outcomes.
• 71% of students not taking humanities courses showed a decline or no increase in empathy scores.
• Only 46% of students taking humanities courses showed a decline or no increase in empathy scores (P = .03).

Conclusions:

• Elective medical humanities coursework is associated with improved empathy scores in US medical students.
• Humanities coursework may directly enhance empathy or attract students predisposed to higher empathy.
• Further research is needed to confirm the direct causal link and explore underlying mechanisms.