Changes of empathy in medical college and medical school students: 1-year follow up study

Abstract

This study aims to determine the correlation between medical education systems, medical college (MC) and medical school (MS), and empathy by investigating the changes in empathy among students with each additional year of medical education. The subjects were MC and MS students who had participated in the same study the previous year. All participants completed the same self-report instruments: a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, and the Korean edition of the Student Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-S-K), Among 334 students, the final analysis was conducted on the data provided by 113 MC and 120 MS students, excluding 101 with incomplete data. The age and sex did not affect the changes in empathy. Though the JSE-S-K score of MS was significantly higher than that of MC in initial investigation, this study found no difference of empathy between MC and MS. Empathy increased significantly after one year of medical education. The difference between two education systems, MC and MS, did not affect the changes in empathy.