Abstract
BackgroundThis study assessed the impact of medical students’ emotion recognition ability and extraversion on their empathic communication, as perceived by simulated patients in a training context.MethodsThis study used a crossed-effect data structure and examined 245 students in their fourth year of medical school. The students’ personality traits were assessed based on a self-assessment questionnaire of the short form of the Big Five Inventory; their emotion recognition ability was measured using a performance test (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2, Adult Facial Expressions). Simulated patients evaluated the medical students’ empathic communication.ResultsStudents with a combination of high emotion recognition ability and extraversion received more positive ratings from simulated patients than their fellow students with a combination of emotion recognition ability and low extraversion. The main effects of emotion recognition or extraversion were not sufficient to yield similar effects. There were no other effects related to the remaining Big Five variables.ConclusionsThe results support the hypothesis that to build rapport with patients, medical staff need to combine emotional capabilities with a dispositional interest in interpersonal encounters.
Highlights
This study assessed the impact of medical students’ emotion recognition ability and extraversion on their empathic communication, as perceived by simulated patients in a training context
12% of the variance in patient satisfaction scores could be explained by differences between students, and 37% could be explained by differences between Simulated patients (SP) themselves
The present results suggest that medical students who are both extraverted and good in emotion recognition give SPs a feeling of empathic communication
Summary
This study assessed the impact of medical students’ emotion recognition ability and extraversion on their empathic communication, as perceived by simulated patients in a training context. Despite the increasing use of technology in medicine, face-to-face communication in the doctor-patient relationship remains vital for successful treatment outcomes [1, 2] This is reflected in the increasing number of papers assessing medical students’ verbal and non-verbal communication skills [3,4,5]. People communicate a large amount of information nonverbally, which means that successful communication includes the ability to decode others’ facial expressions, body postures, and tone of voice. This ability is part of emotional intelligence (EI), Notably, whether individuals use their ability of emotion recognition for prosocial behavior depends on their individual personality traits [10]. One of the most used and well-approved theories is the Five-Factor model,
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