EMPATHY DEVELOPMENT IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS: COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN HEALTH EMPATHY MAPS AND NARRATIVE MEDICINE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v21i1.1781Keywords:
Empathy, Health empathy maps, Narrative medicineAbstract
Background: Empathy is a crucial skill in medical education, enhancing patient care and physician well-being. The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of Health empathy maps and Narrative medicine exercises to foster empathy in undergraduate medical students. Methods: This experimental study was carried out in a private medical college of Rawalpindi for a period of 6 months where 130 medical students were recruited and empathy scores were calculated by Jefferson scale of physician empathy student version. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups: Group 1 practiced the HEM after attending relevant workshops, whereas Group 2 wrote patient interaction-based narratives after attending the relevant workshops. CONSORT guidelines (2010) were maintained for research protocol. The post test scores were compared with pretest scores. Unpaired t test was used to compare the data between the two groups as the data was normally distributed (using Shapiro Wilk test). Results: The students demonstrated improved scores on Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE-S), assessing various facets of empathy. The Empathy Mapping group had high mean score 107.80±12.72 as compared to Narrative Medicine group (101.51±16.49). Both the groups had statistically significant difference as p=0.016. The resultant better technique proved to be the empathy maps. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that empathy maps prove to be an efficient way of fostering empathy in medical students. This strategy would benefit the patients in terms of treatment compliance and the doctors by reducing their stress and burnout.
Pak J Physiol 2025;21(1):87-91, DOI: https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v21i1.1781
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Copyright (c) 2025 Hina Akhtar Khan, Humaira Fayyaz Khan, Sadia Zaheer, Tayyiba Haq, Sharoz Ansar, Shehrbano Batool
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