Narrative medicine in paediatric endocrinology rotations: a pilot study for Chinese medical students

Narrative medicine is a pedagogical tool for cultivating empathy, communication skills, and humanistic care. The application of narrative medicine methods has several limitations in paediatric training, particularly in China. This pilot study explored the preliminary association between narrative medicine training and the enhancement of empathy and communication skills among Chinese medical students during paediatric endocrinology rotations.

Ten undergraduate medical students from Shenzhen University participated in 9.5 weeks of narrative medicine training (11 sessions), which was conducted in small groups during the hospitalization and post-discharge phases. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy and the Doctor-Patient Communication Behaviour Scale were administered before and after the intervention to evaluate the medical students' empathy and communication skills. The differences in the pre-and post-intervention scores were compared using paired t tests.

Compared with the baseline scores, the total Jefferson Scale of Empathy scores significantly increased post-intervention (133.10 ± 4.25 vs. 95.97 ± 8.90, P < 0.05), with increases in the scores of 19 items (P < 0.001 after correction for multiple testing). Similarly, compared with the baseline scores, the post-intervention total Doctor-Patient Communication Behaviour Scale scores significantly increased (155.45 ± 5.76 vs. 133.52 ± 3.81, P < 0.05), with all 6 items demonstrating significant increases (P < 0.001 after correction for multiple testing). Although the reported score changes are notable, they should be considered in the context of the study's small sample size, the lack of a comparison group, and the potential influence of confounding factors.

Narrative medicine training is associated with the potential to improve empathy and communication skills in paediatric contexts, which provides preliminary evidence for promoting the application of narrative medicine in the humanities training of paediatricians. Given the relatively late introduction of narrative medicine in China, its application in the training of Chinese medical students presents greater prospects and opportunities for the accumulation of more experience.