title: Enhancing and sustaining empathy in medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empathy is an important component of physician competence that needs to be enhanced.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypotheses that medical students' empathy can be enhanced and sustained by targeted activities.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a two-phase study in which 248 medical students participated. In Phase 1, students in the experimental group watched and discussed video clips of patient encounters meant to enhance empathic understanding; those in the control group watched a documentary film. Ten weeks later in Phase 2 of the study, students who were in the experimental group were divided into two groups. One group attended a lecture on empathy in patient care, and the other plus the control group watched a movie about racism. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was administered pre-post in Phase 1 and posttest in Phase 2.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Phase 1, the JSE mean score for the experimental group improved significantly (p < 0.01); no change in the JSE scores was observed in the control group. In Phase 2, the JSE mean score improvement was sustained in the group that attended the lecture, but not in the other group. No change in empathy was noticed in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Research hypotheses were confirmed.
authors.affiliation: Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University , USA.
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hojat
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Axelrod
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spandorfer
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mangione
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures; D011287:Prejudice; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013664:Teaching Materials; D014741:Video Recording