Trial reportBMC medical education2024
Effectiveness of empathy portfolios in developing professional identity formation in medical students: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Enhancing emotional intelligence in medical education: a systematic review of interventions.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Educational Interventions for Professional Identity Formation in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Scoping Review.Cureus · 2026Review
- Mapping the humanistic care ecosystem in medical education: development and validation of a novel multidimensional instrument (HCS-ME).BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Longitudinal trajectories of empathy among chinese medical students: a five-year prospective study using a dual-scale assessment.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Empathy as an Essential Skill of Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare: A Narrative Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Beyond the scalpel: humanistic training and professional identity formation in postgraduate plastic surgery education.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Physician Empathy as Perceived by Parents of Children with Psychiatric Disorders: A Quantitative Analysis of Pediatric Consultations.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationship between professional identity, cultural sensibility, and empathy among nursing students: evidence from path analysis.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Learning by drawing: understanding the potential of comics-based courses in medical education through a qualitative study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- The influence of meaning in life on smartphone addiction among nursing undergraduates: the mediating roles of professional identity and achievement motivation.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Increase in self-reported empathy during medical school training: A longitudinal study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Comparing and Contrasting Professional Identity Formation Among Health Professional Students.Cureus · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMedical education requires innovative strategies to enhance empathic skills and the formation of professional identities among students. However, evidence-based teaching of empathy and professional identity formation is inadequately represented, particularly in medical curricula. This study investigated the effectiveness of empathy portfolios in developing Professional Identity Formation (PIF) among medical students and the correlation between empathy and PIF. The objectives of this study were to determine the effectiveness of empathy portfolios for teaching and nurturing PIF in medical students and to investigate the correlation between empathy and PIF.
methodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted at Peshawar Medical College, Pakistan. The protocol adhered to CONSORT guidelines. A total of 120 students participated in the study. Empathy and PIF were assessed using two validated questionnaires JSPE-S and PIQ before randomization. The participants were randomized in a stratified fashion into the experimental (n = 60) and control (n = 60) groups. The Participants in the intervention group attended a training workshop on portfolio use. Students maintained their portfolios and wrote reflections on incidents that evoked empathy. Independent t-tests were performed to determine whether the control and experimental groups differed in terms of mean empathy and PIF scores, and Pearson's correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationships between pre- and post-empathy, and pre-post-PIF.
resultsThe mean post-test scores on the Empathy and PIF showed a statistically insignificant difference of 0.75 +-17.6 for empathy and 0.45 ± 8.36 for PIF. The intervention had little influence on empathy and PIF scores, as evidenced by nonsignificant effect sizes of 0.32 and 0.36 for empathy and PIF respectively.A strong positive correlation was found between Pre-Empathy and the PIF-Total score (0.519), and between Post- empathy and the PIF-Total score (0.395) (p < 0.001).
conclusionsEmpathy had a positive linear correlation with PIF; however, the use of empathy portfolios as a three-week single-point intervention was ineffective at nurturing PIF.
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