Empathy levels among health professional students: a cross-sectional study at two universities in Australia.
BACKGROUND
Empathy is paramount in the health care setting, optimizing communication and rapport with patients. Recent empirical evidence suggests that empathy is associated with improved clinical outcomes. Therefore, given the importance of empathy in the health care setting, gaining a better understanding of students' attitudes and self-reported empathy is important. The objective of this study was to examine self-reported empathy levels of students enrolled in different health disciplines from two large Australian universities.


METHODS
A total of 1,111 students from two different universities enrolled in eight different health professions were administered the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy - Health Profession Students version, a 20-item 7-point Likert scale questionnaire to evaluate self-reported empathy levels.


RESULTS
A total of 1,111 students participated in this study. The majority of participants were from Monash University (n=771), with 340 students from Edith Cowan University. No statistically significant differences were found between universities: Monash University (mean 110.1, standard deviation [SD] 11.8); Edith Cowan University (mean 109.2, SD 13.3, P=0.306). The mean female empathy score (mean 110.8, SD 11.7) was significantly higher than the mean male score (mean 105.3, SD 13.5; P<0.0001; d=0.44). Paramedic students had significantly lower empathy scores (mean 106.3, SD 12.73) than all other participants except nursing students (P<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Results relating to sex are reflective of previous studies. There is some discrepancy in results relating to empathy and its incline/decline as students progress through a program. Further study is warranted to explore why there are variations in empathy levels in students of different health disciplines.
Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Brett
B
Williams
Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Ted
T
Brown
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Lisa
L
McKenna
Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Malcolm J
MJ
Boyle
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Claire
C
Palermo
School of Rural Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Debra
D
Nestel
School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia.
Richard
R
Brightwell
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Louise
L
McCall
Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Verity
V
Russo
empathy; health care professions