ArticleBMJ open2022
Empathy in occupational therapy students: a cross-sectional study at a Spanish university.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the Empathic Communication Coding System.The British journal of occupational therapy · 2025Article
- Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of patients with lower limb fractures post-surgery regarding deep vein thrombosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Psychometric evaluation of the 'Jefferson Scale of Empathy' in a sample of nursing students in the United Kingdom.Nursing open · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionEmpathy is an important interpersonal skill and a fundamental component in the professional-patient relationship, being the basis for implementing person-centred practice. In several studies, a decrease in empathy levels throughout training in medicine, nursing or dentistry, among others, has been shown. There are few studies on the occupational therapy branch of healthcare. The aim was to determine the degree of empathy perceived by students of occupational therapy at a Spanish university, as well as to analyse the differences between empathy levels according to the different degree courses and gender.
methodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was designed with a sample of 221 occupational therapy students from a Spanish university. The Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Student's Spanish version (JSPE-HPS-S) were used as outcome measures.
resultsAccording to the results found, high level of empathy was found on all dimension of the IRI (69.84 (9.80)) and the JSPE-HPS-S (122 (94-140)). Although high levels of empathy among occupational therapy students are observed in all degree courses, no significant differences were found between them. Statistically significant differences and a moderate effect size (r) were found between the variables according to the gender of the participants, with females showing greater empathy in the overall scores of the IRI as well as in the JSPE-HPS-S (p=0.002, r=0.212; p=0.001, r=0.327, respectively).
conclusionsEmpathy is an essential competence for the development of quality occupational therapy practice. According to the results and although occupational therapy students showed high levels of empathy, it is important to pay attention to the evolution of empathy and to provide students with learning experiences that prevent its possible decline.
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