Empathy levels in physiotherapy students: a four-year longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

Background

Empathy is a key value in health-related occupations such as physiotherapy.

Purpose

This longitudinal study aimed to determine the empathy levels of students in a four-year bachelor of physiotherapy program.

Methods

A total of 120 physiotherapy students at a non-governmental university in Istanbul participated in the study between 2016 and 2019. The Turkish adaptation of the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy was used. Empathy scores were compared according to year of study and gender.

Results

Most participants were women (n = 101, 84.2%). Empathy scores differed by years of study (p < .001) being highest in the first year and lowest in the fourth year. There was no difference in empathy scores between women and men (p = .26).

Conclusion

This is the first longitudinal study to contribute data on empathy levels in Turkish physiotherapy students. The decline in empathy seen in fourth-year physiotherapy students is associated more with the academic program and clinical practice than with any other factor. Further studies are warranted to explore why there are variations in empathy levels in physiotherapy students during their education. Ensuring students develop awareness and skills related to empathy during their undergraduate studies could result in a higher quality of care early in their professional practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Empathy
• Jefferson scale of empathy
• longitudinal studies
• physiotherapy
• students

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the students from the physiotherapy department for their participation in the study. Special thanks to Bengisu Usta for her assistance during data collection and to Gulsen Ozduran for her statistical help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.