Does Empathy Decline in the Clinical Phase of Medical Education? A Nationwide, Multi-Institutional, Cross-Sectional Study of Students at DO-Granting Medical Schools.
Publication/Presentation Date
6-1-2020
Abstract
PURPOSE: To examine differences in students' empathy in different years of medical school in a nationwide study of students of U.S. DO-granting medical schools.
METHOD: Participants in this cross-sectional study included 10,751 students enrolled in 41 of 48 campuses of DO-granting medical schools in the United States (3,616 first-year, 2,764 second-year, 2,413 third-year, and 1,958 fourth-year students). They completed a web-based survey at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year that included the Jefferson Scale of Empathy and the Infrequency Scale of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire for measuring "good impression" response bias. Comparisons were made on empathy scores among students in different years of medical school using analysis of covariance, controlling for the effect of "good impression" response bias. Also, comparisons were made with preexisting data from students of U.S. MD-granting medical schools.
RESULTS: A statistically significant decline in empathy scores was observed when comparing students in the preclinical (years 1 and 2) and the clinical (years 3 and 4) phases of medical school (P < .001); however, the magnitude of the decline was negligible (effect size =0.13). Comparison of findings with MD students showed that while the pattern of empathy decline was similar, the magnitude of the decline was less pronounced in DO students.
CONCLUSIONS: Differences in DO-granting and MD-granting medical education systems, such as emphasis on provision of holistic care, hands-on approaches to diagnosis and treatment, and patient-centered care, provide plausible explanations for disparity in the magnitude of empathy decline in DO compared with MD students. More research is needed to examine changes in empathy in longitudinal study and explore reasons for changes to avert erosion of empathy in medical school.
Volume
95
Issue
6
First Page
911
Last Page
918
ISSN
1938-808X
Published In/Presented At
Hojat, M., Shannon, S. C., DeSantis, J., Speicher, M. R., Bragan, L., & Calabrese, L. H. (2020). Does Empathy Decline in the Clinical Phase of Medical Education? A Nationwide, Multi-Institutional, Cross-Sectional Study of Students at DO-Granting Medical Schools. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 95(6), 911–918. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000003175
Disciplines
Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods
PubMedID
31977341
Department(s)
Administration and Leadership
Document Type
Article