The effect of osteopathic training on empathy levels: A cross-sectional survey at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Item
- Title
- The effect of osteopathic training on empathy levels: A cross-sectional survey at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine.
- Author(s)
- Weinberg, Yael
- Abstract
-
BackgroundHigher empathy levels in health care practitioners correlates with improved patient outcomes. A decline in empathy has been reported in medical students during their training, specifically during the transition from the pre-clinical to the clinical phase of study. Very few studies have been conducted investigating whether a similar decline occurs in osteopathic students, with mixed results. Additionally, empathy levels are consistently found to be higher in females compared to males. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate whether empathy levels decline in osteopathic students at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in London, UK, specifically between the pre-clinical and clinical years of studies. Comparing male and female empathy levels was a secondary aim. MethodsThe study was a cross-sectional questionnaire based survey. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student version was used to assess empathy levels. All students from the four year cohorts were invited to participate. Empathy score differences between the pre-clinical and clinical years as well as between each year of study individually for the mixed, male and female cohorts were assessed.Additionally, overall male and female scores were compared. Students t-test and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc tests were used. A significant result was defined as p<0.05. ResultsThe survey included 65 responders (52.84% of student population). The difference between empathy levels in the pre-clinical and clinical years was not statistically significant (P= 0.192). Year 2 results were significantly higher than year 4 for the mixed (P= 0.035) and female (P= 0.017) groups. Female overall score was significantly higher than males (P= 0.040).
ConclusionThe study did not demonstrate a decline in empathy between the preclinical and clinical years of study. However, a decline was shown between year 2 and 4 suggesting there may be a decline in empathy during training at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine. - presented at
- British College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Date Accepted
- 2018
- Date Submitted
- 9.11.2018 11:31:33
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Number of pages
- 33
- Submitted by:
- 4457
- Pub-Identifier
- 16209
- Inst-Identifier
- 1076
- Keywords
- decline, empathy, gender, Jefferson Scale of Empathy, osteopathic training, osteopathy
- Recommended
- 1
- Item sets
- Thesis
Weinberg, Yael, “The effect of osteopathic training on empathy levels: A cross-sectional survey at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine.”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 4, 2024, https://www.osteopathicresearch.com/s/orw/item/2142