Abstract
Research question/context: Empathy, broadly defined as recognizing and understanding the experiences of others, is an essential quality in providing high quality patient care. There is limited evidence exploring empathy in physical therapy, and what does exist provides conflicting results (Anderson et al, 2020). Additionally, some evidence suggests that service learning activities may impact empathy levels of healthcare providers. The University of Evansville and Duquesne University have a unique opportunity to longitudinally examine empathy in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students, as well as the impact of service learning through the University of Evansville’s pro bono organization, Ace CARE. Though empathy has gained substantial attention in medical professions research in the last decade, little is known about empathy in physical therapy. Additionally, while Ace CARE has existed for 12 years, the impact it has on the development of students is unknown. Therefore, there is a critical need to longitudinally explore empathy levels in physical therapy students, as well as any potential covariates (such as service learning) that may impact empathy levels. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to measure levels of empathy of students across the DPT curriculum at two universities (University of Evansville and Duquesne University), as well as participation in service learning. We hypothesize that a change in empathy levels will exist between years in a DPT program. Additionally, we hypothesize that students involved in service learning activities will have higher levels of empathy than students that are not involved in these activities.
Approach/methods: Ninety-two students (49 from the University of Evansville, 43 from Duquesne University) participated in the study. After informed consent was obtained, demographic information regarding age, gender, year within the program, and frequency of involvement in volunteer and service learning activities (examples include, but are not limited to: pro bono service learning, youth tutoring or coaching, volunteering at local food pantries) were collected. Our primary outcome measure was the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professions Students, which is considered the gold standard for measuring empathy in healthcare providers. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy is a proprietary survey that was developed in 1970 and has been utilized in more than 350 publications. It has been established as a reliable and valid tool for measuring empathy in medical students (Hojat et al, 2001) as well as undergraduate nursing students (Ward et al, 2009), with suggested normative values (Hojat et al, 2015). Both surveys were administered using paper and pencil format.
Discussions/lessons learned: A significant difference in the Jefferson Scale of Empathy was noted between the universities, with Duquesne University students scoring an average of 120.86 (SD=8.58) and University of Evansville students scoring an average of 115.02 (SD=11.17). Duquesne University students scored higher than a reported national student average of 116.54 (Hojat, 2018). Interestingly, no significant differences were observed between male and female students on any of the collected outcomes. This is an interesting finding, as many studies demonstrate higher empathy levels in female students and healthcare providers (Hojat, 2018). The second round of data collection was completed in the fall of 2024, and data is anticipated to be analyzed and ready for presentation at the conference.