Using Patient Perspective Sessions to Increase Empathy and Recall in Preclinical Medical Students

AbstractThere is growing concern about a potential decline in empathy among medical students over time. Despite the importance of empathy toward patients in medicine, it remains unclear the nature of the changes in empathy among medical students. Thus, we systematically investigated affective and cognitive empathy for patients among medical students using neuroscientific approach. Nineteen medical students who completed their fifth-year medical curriculum and 23 age- and sex-matched nonmedical students participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Inside a brain scanner, all participants read empathy-eliciting scenarios while adopting either the patient or doctor perspective. Brain activation and self-reported ratings during the experience of empathy were obtained. Behavioral results indicated that all participants reported greater emotional negativity and empathic concern in association with the patient perspective condition than with the doctor perspective condition. Functional brain imaging results indicated that neural activity in the posterior superior temporal region implicated in goal-relevant attention reorienting was overall increased under the patient perspective than the doctor perspective condition. Relative to nonmedical students, medical students showed decreased activity in the temporoparietal region implicated in mentalizing under the patient perspective versus doctor perspective condition. Notably, this same region showed increased activity under the doctor versus patient condition in medical students relative to nonmedical students. This study is among the first to investigate the neural mechanisms of empathy among medical students and the current findings point to the cognitive empathy system as the locus of the primary brain differences associated with empathy toward patients.

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Voluntary attachments of preclinical medical students to rural practitioners in Queensland

Medical Education ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2923.1980.tb02625.x ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 130-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

G. A. COLDITZ ◽

J. G. C. MUNRO

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Preclinical Medical Students

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Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among preclinical medical students: epidemiologic and molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant S. aureus clones

Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease ◽

10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2010.12.004 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 70 (1) ◽

pp. 22-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Xiao Xue Ma ◽

Dan Dan Sun ◽

Si Wang ◽

Mei Lian Wang ◽

Miao Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Medical Students ◽

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Nasal Carriage ◽

Molecular Characteristics ◽

Methicillin Resistant ◽

Preclinical Medical Students

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Human Growth After Birth (2nd Ed.), by David Sinclair, M.A., M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.S.E. London: Oxford University Press, 1973, 212 pp., $7.95

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.53.6.958b ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 53 (6) ◽

pp. 958-959

Author(s):

Stanley M. Garn

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Human Growth ◽

Human Biology ◽

Logical Approach ◽

Oxford University ◽

The Subject ◽

Preclinical Medical Students ◽

Growth And Aging ◽

Oxford University Press

This is a little paperback about growth and aging, extended in scope, and increased in price ($7.50), though the per-page cost (3.75£ per page) is not so horrendous as at first it may seem. For the price it provides an overview of the subject, 66 figures and 8 tipped-in plates, and a logical approach to the subject, with a distinctly British or U.K. flavor. It is intended "for preclinical medical students, but with the needs of paramedical workers and of students and teachers of human biology also in mind."

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