Empathy among Medical Students Studying Different Curricula: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Objective: To determine and compare empathy among medical students, studying two different curricula.Study Design: Cross Sectional.Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Department of Community Medicine of WahMedical College, Wah Cantt from January 2018 to June 2018.Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on second and fourth year MBBS students. The sample sizewas 90, calculated by Open Epi calculator and the students were selected by using stratified random samplingtechnique. A data collection tool comprised of two parts; demographic information about the individual wascollected in the first part and second part was based on Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. The questionnaire had16 questions and scored between 0-64. The questions were responded on a Likert scale of never, rarely,sometimes, often and always. The data was analyzed by using software program of SPSS version 20. Descriptivestatistics and Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare the mean scores of empathy of students studyingdifferent curricula.Results: Mean score of empathy among students was 42.89+ 8.535. Mean empathy score of 2 year studentsth nd was 45.58 +7.203 and 4 year students came out to be 40.20 +8.981. Empathy was statistically significant in 2 year students and in female students; female students' empathy score was 46.38 while male students score was 39.40.Conclusion: It is concluded that 2 year students who studied integrated curriculum showed higher empathyth scores than 4 year students studying traditional curriculum. Moreover, female students showed significantlyhigher empathy scores as compared to the male students.