Análise da empatia no estudante de medicina da Faculdade de Medicina – Unifenas-BH ao longo da graduação

Abstract

Empathy is a skill related to the perception and understanding of other people’s feelings. Not only is it one of the most mentioned humanistic dimensions in Medicine, but it is also associated with better diagnosis and therapeutic results in a clinical context. Due to its importance in the context of the physician-patient relationship, the behavior of the students’ empathy levels during the undergraduate years has become a research object in Medical Education. This study is an effort to evaluate the empathy of Medicine students at UNIFENAS BH (a private medical college) over the undergraduate years by using the Jefferson scale, already validated for the Portuguese language. Methods: Cross-sectional study held at UNIFENAS BH, with the application of the social-demographic questionnaire and the Jefferson empathy scale, already validated in Brazil and designed to measure the Medicine students’ empathy level with respect to patients. The sample consisted of 247 regular students of the even-numbered undergraduate semesters. Results: The analysis of the results shows, comprehensively, that there was not a statistically significant difference in empathy levels among the academic terms studied over the undergraduate years, with respect to gender and future specialty. Exceptions were observed only in the fourth academic semester, in connection with the variable “gender” with respect to the scores: compassion, ability to put oneself in somebody else’s place and general score, in which the scores for the female gender showed themselves higher when compared to those of the male gender. The data obtained may reflect the result of various educational strategies that have been implemented at the college, aimed at the development of a person-centered care, in addition to teaching and research activities developed over the undergraduate and graduate years. Conclusions: No statistical differences were observed, in the analysis of this sample of students, in empathy levels among students of different academic terms, with respect to the variables “gender” and “future specialty” over the undergraduate years at UNIFENAS BH. Medical colleges should include the topic of empathy in their curricula, to establish the teaching of that important socioemotional skill