A cross-sectional study of student empathy across four medical schools in Denmark-associations between empathy level and age, sex, specialty preferences and motivation

Cluster analysis of medical students' attitudes regarding people who use drugs: a first step to design a tailored education program

INTRODUCTION

People with substance use disorder (SUD) deal with stigmatization in various areas of life, including healthcare system. In this study, we investigated the attitudes of final-year medical students towards SUD people and attempted to understand their influence.

METHODS

We conducted a two-stage cluster analysis (hierarchical ascending classification followed by K-means clustering) based on the "beSAAS". We administrated this 23-item questionnaire to 923 final-year medical students in Belgium (response rate = 71,1%). Sociodemographic characteristics were compared between the clusters.

RESULTS

Four clusters of students with specific characteristics were identified in this study. The first, "The Inclusives" (including 27,9% of respondents) had the least negative attitudes; they wanted to specialize mainly in psychiatry and gynecology. The second, "The Centrists" (23,6%) consisted mainly of male students. They had many private and professional experiences with substance use and considered themselves less healthy than others did. Most wanted to specialize in pediatrics and general practice. Their attitudes were slightly negative towards people with SUD. The third, "The Moralists" (27,6%), were mainly older, from non-European countries, had the least experience with substance use (or contact mainly in hospitals), had the less high mother's level of education and reported excellent health. They were heading toward other specialties. They had the most stereotypes and moralism, and less treatment optimism. The fourth, "The Specialist care-oriented" (20,8%), were the most in favor of specialized treatment. This group had a higher proportion of Belgian, females, and students who had specific contact with this population. They especially intended to specialize in internal medicine.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed 4 profiles of medical students with different attitudes towards SUD people. "The Moralists", including more than a quarter of the respondents, were characterized by strong stereotypes and moralism and little treatment optimism. These clusters could contribute to the design of a learner-centered program aimed at addressing stigma within the main curriculum.

Empathy Among Physicians and Nurses in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND

Empathy with patients improves clinical outcomes. Although previous studies have shown no significant differences in empathy levels between physicians and nurses, investigations have not considered differences in cultural backgrounds and related factors of healthcare providers at the individual level.

OBJECTIVE

This study compares empathy between physicians and nurses in Japan and identifies relevant factors that contribute to these differences.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey design was used in the study. The online survey was conducted using the Nikkei Medical Online website.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 5441 physicians and 965 nurses in Japan who were registered as members of Nikkei Medical Online were included.

MAIN MEASURES

Empathy was measured by the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE).

KEY RESULTS

Cronbach's α was 0.89. The mean JSE score for Japanese physicians was significantly lower at 100.05 (SD = 15.75) than the mean score of 110.63 (SD = 12.25) for nurses (p<0.001). In related factors, higher age (increasing by one year) (+0.29; 95% CI 0.25 to 0.32; p<0.001), self-identified female gender (+5.45; 95% CI 4.40 to 6.49; p<0.001), having children (+1.20; 95% CI 0.30 to 2.10; p=0.009), and working at a hospital with 20-99 beds (+1.73; 95% CI 0.03 to 3.43; p=0.046) were significantly associated with higher scores, whereas those whose mother is a physician (-6.65; 95% CI -8.82 to -4.47; p<0.001) and father is a nurse (-9.53; 95% CI -16.54 to -2.52; p=0.008) or co-medical professional (-3.85; 95% CI -5.49 to -2.21; p<0.001) were significantly associated with lower scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Physicians had significantly lower scores on the JSE than nurses in Japan. Higher age, self-identified female gender, having children, working at a small hospital, having a mother who is a physician, and having a father who is a nurse or co-medical professional were factors associated with the level of empathy.

The impact of empathy on medical students: an integrative review

INTRODUCTION

Empathy is considered the ability to understand or feel others emotions or experiences. As an important part of medical education, empathy can affect medical students in many ways. It is still lacking a comprehensive evaluation of the existing articles on empathy's impact on medical students, despite the existence of many articles on the topic.

OBJECTIVES

To summarize the impact of empathy on medical students during medical education from four perspectives: mental health, academic performance, clinical competence, and specialty preference.

METHODS

The search terms used for retrieval were "empathy", "medical student", "mental health", "depression", "anxiety", "burnout", "examinations", "academic performance", "clinical competence", "specialty preference" on PubMed, EBSCO, and Web of Science before January 2024. The search was carried out by two reviewers. Titles and abstracts were screened independently and reviewed based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. A consensus was drawn on which articles were included.

RESULTS

Our results indicated that high empathy was a positive factor for mental health, However, students with high affective empathy were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and burnout. Empathy was found to be unrelated to academic performance, but positively correlated with clinical competence, particularly in terms of communication skills. Medical students with high levels of empathy tended to prefer people-oriented majors.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical students who score higher on the self-reported empathy scales often have better mental health, better communication skills, and tend to choose people-oriented specialties. But empathy is not related to academic performance. Additionally, the different dimensions of empathy have different impacts on medical students. It is necessary to design targeted courses and training for medical students to enhance their empathy.

Individual differences in empathy in Danish university students: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Empathy is widely recognized as a multi-dimensional construct, involving emotional and cognitive components. These may cause distinct experiences and behaviors that can be both beneficial and deleterious to individuals' well-being and mental health.

AIM

We wished to examine the association between emotional and cognitive empathy of Danish university students as measured by the multidimensional Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and study major, sex, age, and parental status. Additionally, we aimed to gauge the validity of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE-S) as a measure of primarily cognitive empathy in the context of medical majors by comparing JSE-S scores with IRI cognitive scores.

METHODS

In our national, cross-sectional study, conducted in October 2020, we used survey data from students in their first, third, and final study year. All students from University of Southern Denmark were invited to fill out IRI, and all medical students at Denmark's four medical educations were additionally invited to fill out the JSE-S. Associations were estimated by linear regression models.

RESULTS

Of 14,072 invited, 2,595 students completed the questionnaire. Health majors scored statistically significantly higher on cognitive empathy than students from other study majors. The JSE-S correlated significantly with the cognitive empathy subscales of the IRI. Furthermore, the effects found in relation to sex, age-, and parental status were significant.

CONCLUSION

Our study results show that large differences in empathy exist between university students and study majors. Overall, our results highlight (1) the relevance of investigating empathy as a multidimensional versus a global construct in young adult populations (including university students) and (2) the importance of focusing on differences in empathy across different student characteristics.

Spiritual needs in Denmark: a population-based cross-sectional survey linked to Danish national registers

Background

Spiritual aspects of the human condition may give rise to spiritual pain and suffering, especially in the face of illness or difficult life situations. A growing volume of research documents the effects of religiosity, spirituality, meaning, and purpose on health. In supposedly secular societies, however, spiritual matters are rarely addressed in healthcare. This is the first large scale study to examine spiritual needs in Danish culture, and the largest study on spiritual needs to date.

Methods

A population-based sample of 104,137 adult (≥18 yrs) Danes were surveyed cross-sectionally (the EXICODE study) and responses were linked to data from Danish national registers. The primary outcome was spiritual needs in four dimensions: religious, existential, generativity, and inner peace. Logistic regression models were fitted to examine the relationship between participant characteristics and spiritual needs.

Findings

A total of 26,678 participants responded to the survey (25.6%). Of included participants 19,507 (81.9%) reported at least one strong or very strong spiritual need in the past month. The Danes scored highest on inner peace needs, followed by generativity, then existential, and lastly, religious needs. Affiliating as religious or spiritual, regularly meditating or praying, or reporting low health, low life satisfaction, or low well-being increased the odds of having spiritual needs.

Interpretation

This study demonstrated that spiritual needs are common among Danes. These findings have important implications for public health policies and clinical care. Care for the spiritual dimension of health is warranted as part of holistic, person-centered care in what we term 'post-secular' societies. Future research should inform how spiritual needs might be addressed in healthy and diseased populations in Denmark and other European countries and the clinical effectiveness of such interventions.

Funding

The paper was supported by the Danish Cancer Society (R247-A14755), The Jascha Foundation (ID 3610), The Danish Lung Foundation, AgeCare, and the University of Southern Denmark.