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A Cross-sectional Measurement of Medical Student Empathy

Journal of General Internal MedicinePublished 25 July 2007Open access
Daniel Chen, Robert Lew, Warren Hershman, Jay D. Orlander
Citations546
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TL;DR

Empathy scores of students in the preclinical years were higher than in the clinical years, and efforts are needed to determine whether differences in empathy scores among the classes are cohort effects or represent changes occurring in the course of medical education.

Abstract

Empathy scores of students in the preclinical years were higher than in the clinical years. Efforts are needed to determine whether differences in empathy scores among the classes are cohort effects or represent changes occurring in the course of medical education. Future research is needed to confirm whether clinical training impacts empathy negatively, and, if so, whether interventions can be designed to mitigate this impact.

Keywords

Medicine