Empathy Levels in Medical Students: A Single Center Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Psychology
• Healthcare Professions

Background:

• Empathy is crucial for effective patient care and physician-patient relationships.
• Understanding empathy levels in medical students is vital for curriculum development and training.
• Previous studies suggest empathy may change during medical school.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the empathy levels of medical students at a single institution.
• To investigate gender-based differences in empathy among medical students.
• To explore the trend of empathy across different academic years of medical education.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative study utilizing the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ).
• Data collected via Google Forms from medical students (2020-2021 academic year).
• Statistical analysis included mean TEQ score calculation and independent sample t-tests using SPSS version 23.0.

Main Results:

• Out of 367 students, 347 (94.6%) participated; 53% were female.
• The mean empathy score was higher for females (49.08) than males (44.59).
• Empathy scores generally declined with each academic year, with a slight increase in the final year.

Conclusions:

• Empathy levels in medical students tend to decrease as their education progresses.
• Female medical students exhibit higher empathy scores compared to their male counterparts.
• Interventions may be needed to sustain or enhance empathy throughout medical training.