Orientacion empatica en estudiantes de medicina de las Universidades Libre y San Martin, Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract

Background. Empathy is an important characteristic that medical students must have and which has not been a central subject of study in Latinamerica.

Objective. To determine the level of empathic orientation of medicine students from San Martin University, Puerto Colombia campus, and Libre University, Barranquilla campus, both located in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Materials and methods. The empathic orientation in medical students was measured by the implementation of the Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale Spanish version for students (S version), validated in other countries of Latin America and culturally adapted to Colombia. Data comparison was carried out through bifactorial analysis of (Model III).

Results. The level of empathetic guidance of students is low, with levels situated above the central value of the scale range, 20 to 140. There were no statistically signicant differences in the score, in terms of courses and gender, to compare averages of the sums of scores of students. However, a different behavior between the two universities in terms of gender and courses was observed: women had better absolute values of the levels of empathy than men at University of San Martin, but not statistically; while at University Libre statistical differences in gender and the courses were observed. As a result, there are differences between both universities.

Conclusions. The results of this study do not explain the contradiction that was found in relation to gender differences between universities and courses. However, these results are consistent with other works, in particular those carried out in Latin America, which show variability of the empathic response in medical students and health. Differences between both universities cannot only be attributed to psychological reasons, but also to the presence of other factors inuencing the empathic response.