The relationship between medical students’ empathy and burnout levels by gender and study years

To investigate the multifaceted factors affecting empathy in medical students. 1293 medical students from 15 South Korean medical schools participated in an online survey. Affective empathy was measured with the ‘empathy concern’ and ‘personal distress’ dimensions from the Interpersonal Reactivity I...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Patient education and counseling 2022-02, Vol.105 (2), p.432-439
Main Authors: Shin, Hyoung Seok, Park, Hyunmi, Lee, Young-Mee
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic efficacy
Burnout
Burnout, Professional
Burnout, Psychological
Empathy
Female
Humans
Male
Medical students
Students, Medical - psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:To investigate the multifaceted factors affecting empathy in medical students. 1293 medical students from 15 South Korean medical schools participated in an online survey. Affective empathy was measured with the ‘empathy concern’ and ‘personal distress’ dimensions from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Medical Students (IRI-MS). Cognitive empathy was assessed with IRI-MS’ ‘perspective taking’ and Jefferson Scales for Physician Empathy for Student (JSPE-S). Maslach Burnout Inventory for Medical Students (MBI-MS) assessed the burnout levels of the participants. A significant gender difference in affective and cognitive empathy was found using JSPE-S. Different patterns were seen in the empathy dimensions between the study years and genders. Burnout scores showed no gender differences, while exhaustion and cynicism increased, and academic efficacy decreased with seniority. Academic efficacy was a consistently influential factor for both affective and cognitive empathy in both genders, all study years and the three domains of burnout. Academic efficacy was a significant factor influencing both affective and cognitive empathy. The comprehensive nature of empathy in medical students may be better investigated by applying multi-dimensional empathy measurement tools and by analyzing multiple factors such as gender, study year and burnout. •Empathy measured multidimensionally showed gender and year differences.•Burnout has been found to negatively correlate with empathy in medical students.•Academic efficacy seemed to be consistently influential in all empathy dimensions.
ISSN:0738-3991
1873-5134
DOI:10.1016/j.pec.2021.05.036