Empathy levels among undergraduate students of health sciences

Abstract

Aims: To determine empathy levels of medical students of Rawal institute of Health Sciences using Jefferson scale of physician empathy and to establish the relationship between empathy scores and year of study and gender Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2022 to July 2022, at Rawal Institute of Health Sciences. Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Profession Students' version was distributed among 230 students of all five years of MBBS. Results: The results showed that 67.8% (n=156/230) had good empathy score, 20.9% (n=48/230) had excellent score and 11.3% (n=26/230) had average quality empathy score. The relation between year of study and empathy score was significant (p=0.003) with 3rd year students having excellent empathy scores as compared to the rest of the years and 5th year having more students with average empathy as compared to the rest of the years. The relation between gender and empathy scores was not significant (p=0.302). Conclusion: Professional empathy among medical students is associated with increased satisfaction with their education, lower levels of stress and burn out and higher ratings of overall clinical competence. Private medical students have good scores of empathies.