Shazia Zainab*
Career Postgraduate Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Lucknow, India
*Corresponding address: Career Postgraduate Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Lucknow, India
Email: Zainab.sana13@gmail.com
doi:
Keywords: Cross-Sectional Study; Dental Students; Empathy; Indian Healthcare; Medical Education
ABSTRACT
Objective
The aim of the study is to measure the levels of empathy amongst undergraduate dental and medical
students across various universities in India, exploring factors that influence these levels to provide insights into enhancing empathy training in healthcare education.
Methods
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 926 students from government and private
medical and dental colleges in India. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was used to measure clinical empathy. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, with t-tests and ANOVA applied to assess associations between empathy levels, demographics, academic years, and specialty preferences. Pearson’s χ² test was used for further comparisons.
Results
The overall mean empathy score was 102.8 ± 15.9, with higher scores in female students (104.8 ± 14.9)
than males (91.4 ± 19.4). Empathy scores were highest among fourth-year students, while second-year students and those beyond the fourth year had the lowest. Higher scores were observed in students preferring people oriented specialties, such as pediatrics and internal medicine.
Conclusion
While most nursing students exhibited good awareness of therapeutic communication, a notable
proportion displayed knowledge gaps. The findings emphasize the need for targeted communication training and curricular modifications in nursing programs to enhance therapeutic communication skills and improve patient care outcomes.
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How to Cite this: Zainab S. Level of empathy amongst undergraduate medical and dental students in India: a cross-sectional study. J Sci Technol Educ Art Med. 2024;1(2):21-2
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.