ArticleBMJ open2020
Empathy variation of undergraduate medical students after early clinical contact: a cross-sectional study in China.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impact of early clinical exposure on medical students' competency development: a systematic review of evidence from Asian and African countries.BMC medical education · 2025Pooled it
- Do educational interventions reduce the gender gap in communication skills?- a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2024Pooled it
- Towards patient-centered healthcare: a scoping review of soft skills training in medical schools.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Current status and educational needs of early clinical exposure in Korean Medical Schools: A cross-sectional survey study.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- The relationship between empathy and mental health: A mediation model via rumination and interpersonal competence.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Cognitive empathy variations during internship: a study from Iran.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Reliability of Greek version of the Toronto empathy questionnaire in medical students and associations with sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.BMC psychology · 2022Article
- Effects of a 2-Week Remote Learning Program on Empathy and Clinical and Communication Skills in Premedical Students: Mixed Methods Evaluation Study.JMIR medical education · 2021Article
- Early clinical exposure improves medical students' recognition of the need for professionalism and interprofessional collaboration.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesEmpathy education is very important for medical students. There is little research on the influence of early clinical practice on the development of empathy and other aspects of professionalism in medical students. The aim of this study was to compare the self-reported empathy levels of first-year and second-year undergraduate medical students before and after their early clinical contact curriculum.
settingThe study was conducted at the Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
participantsA total of 257 undergraduate medical students participated in the study. The 154 first-year students were studying in 10 community-based teaching hospitals, and the 103 second-year students were studying in 3 university-affiliated hospitals. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary measures: the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student version (JSE-S) was compared between students of different sexes and in different academic years before their early clinical contact course. Secondary measures: comparisons were made after they finished the curriculum 3 weeks later.
resultsA total of 219 of 257 students responded (85.21% response rate), and 214 answers could be analysed (135 first-year and 79 second-year students; 120 female and 94 male individuals). No significant differences in the empathy scores before early clinical contact were observed between students of different sexes and in different academic years. After early clinical contact, the mean JSE-S score of the participants was significantly higher than the mean score at the beginning of the curriculum.
conclusionsEmpathy-focused training during early clinical contact can improve the empathetic capacity of undergraduate medical students. Fostering empathetic attitudes among undergraduate medical students is necessary for the early stage of their medical education. Further research is needed on the long-term effects of empathy-focused education in entry-level medical students.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.