Mapa da empatia em saúde como instrumento de reflexão em um cenário de ensino assistencial em geriatria.

Abstract

Introduction: The Health Empathy Map (HEM) has been used to develop empathy, but its use in undergraduate courses, in the context of geriatric education, has not yet been evaluated. Objective: To evaluate the use of HEM as a reflection instrument in 8th period students, during geriatrics outpatient teaching activities at UniBH. Methods: Controlled experimental study, where students were systematically allocated into two groups: map group (MG) and control group (CG). In the MG, 35 students filled out the HEM at the end of each appointment and listed the patient's problems; in the CG, 33 students only listed the problems encountered after the service. After 6 months, all students completed the Jefferson Empathy Scale Brazilian version (JSPE-Br). The JSPE-Br score and the problem list characteristics were compared between groups. Results: The overall JSPE-Br score at the end of the intervention was 6.24 ± 0.42 for the MG and 6.22 ± 0.50 for the CG (p=0.879). There was no difference between groups for each domain of the scale. The average number of problems listed per student in each group did not differ. The characteristics of the problems listed in both groups mainly contemplated biomedical aspects. Regarding the affective aspects, elements of this domain were present in 117 (43.2%) forms. The forms in the CG showed a higher proportion of the affective element, compared to the MG (52.0% vs. 35.6%; p=0.007). Aspects related to the context were present in only 10 (3.7%) of the forms, with no difference between the groups. It was observed that 95.2% of the maps contained evidence of imaginary transposition; 63% demonstrated the patient's needs with a focus restricted to biomedical aspects, as well as in quadrant 4 (74.7% of the maps) and 93.2% of the maps contained elements of body resonance. Thirty-one students (88.6%) stated that the HEM changed their perception of care for the elderly. Conclusion: The HEM promoted reflections in students about their own feelings towards patients. It was evident that the students presented difficulties to transpose their reflections into care intentions considering all the patients' perspectives: biomedical, affective, and social. Our results show the complexity of outpatient geriatric teaching and the need to train students to cope with the affective and cognitive overload present in these environments. The HEM is useful for learning, requiring the development of strategies to provide feedback to students.