Differences and changes in the empathy of Korean medical students according to gender and vocational aptitude, before and after clerkship

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is any change in the empathy scores of third-year medical graduate students after they have taken a clerkship and have begun gaining more opportunities to meet patients through the clerkship. Methods: The participants were 109 third-year students in 2014 and 110 fourth-year students in 2015 at Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine. The author measured empathy using a modified and expanded version of the Korean version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy of Physician Empathy-Student version and used the Holland-III aptitude testS to assess vocational aptitude. Results: As a results, male students in their third year exhibited higher scores, but there was no significant difference in the fourth year. The empathy score increased slightly when third-year students became fourth-year students, but the difference was not statistically significant. There was no statistically significant change in the scores of both male and female students between the 2 years. The results of the vocational aptitude test showed that students who preferred person-oriented specialties had higher empathy scores when they entered their fourth academic year compared to objectively-oriented students. Conclusion: In this study, male students showed higher empathy scores than female students, an atypical finding that was inconsistent with the results of previous studies. However, the distribution of scores among male students was wider than that of female students, a finding consistent with previous studies. As such, individual differences need to be considered when developing curriculum in order to improve the empathy of medical students.

Communicative and Social Skills among Medical Students in Spain: A Descriptive Analysis

“…Men scored higher in empathy than women. This finding is inconsistent with cumulative evidence that there are no gender-based differences in terms of empathy [26][27][28], or that female medical students and physicians score higher in empathy than men [6,15,[29][30][31][32]. Conversely, other research studies report higher scores for men in empathy [33].…”

Correlation between medical student empathy and a Korean nationwide comprehensive clinical assessment score at a medical school in Korea

“…The Korean JSE-S appeared worthy unwavering quality and satisfactory factorial validity. [10][11][12][13] Factor analyses a rmed that the Korean JSE-S had a three-component gure structure comparative to that of the initial English version. [9] In spite of the fact that the initial version has 20 items; two (items 18 and 19) were not included in the measurement tool used in this study.…”

“…The modi ed Korean version of the JSE-S has 18 items. [12] However, it also has the three components, "perspective taking," "compassionate care," and "standing in patient's shoes." Perspective taking includes items 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, and 20.…”

“…[9] In spite of the fact that the initial version has 20 items; two (items 18 and 19) were not included in the measurement tool used in this study. [12] They were excluded in this measurement tool as they were considered inappropriate for cultural reasons. However, the modi ed Korean JSE-S had also positive and statistically signi cant item-total score correlations, showing that the direction of scoring was correct for all items, and each item signi cantly contributed to the total score.…”

“…However, 2 (items 18 and 19) were excluded in this measurement tool as they were considered inappropriate for cultural reasons, resulting in 18 items. [12] The total score was obtained by summing all items (maximum score = 126), where higher values indicated higher degrees of empathy.…”