ASSESSMENT OF PHYSICIAN EMPATHY AMONG FEU-NRMF RESIDENT DOCTORS

ABSTRACT: The study was designed to determine the empathy score of the resident doctors of FEU-NRMF Medical Center. This also aimed to determine the difference in the self-rated physician empathy shown to patients by FEU-NRMF resident doctors according to sex, year level, and medical specialty. A 20-item questionnaire adapted from the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (HP-version) was administered to 78 resident doctors, T-test was used to compare the mean scores of men and women, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the differences on the mean empathy among, Physician in different specialties and year level. To investigate deeper, Pearson Chisquare was used to determine if there is a significant difference between the categorical variables. This study found that there is a high empathy score among FEU-NRMF resident doctors. There is no significant difference on resident physicians' sex when comparing empathy scores. There is also no significant difference in empathy scores of resident doctors while progressing through another year level in their respective medical specialty. However, majority of the item analysis for medical specialty showed a significant difference on empathy scores of the resident doctors. These findings suggest that there are more specific factors that may affect empathy. Therefore, additional studies are recommended for deeper investigation of these factors.

Department of Community & Family Medicine