Relationship between self-reported cognitive and behavioural empathy among medical students

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between cognitive and behavioural empathy in medical students.MethodsFourteen 4th year medical students recruited on the basis of their scores on the self-reported Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-S) were divided into two groups: low JSE-S scorers (n = 8) (M = 96.75, SD = 10.3) and high JSE-S scorers (n = 6) (M = 121.3, SD = 2.94). They were discreetly videotaped while taking history with an incognito standardized patient. Students’ behavioural empathy was measured using the Verona Coding System (VR-CoDES-P) and rating of non-verbal behaviour.ResultsPatients expressed the same number of concerns per encounter in both groups but gave more cues to high-scorers (p = 0.029). However, students of both groups demonstrated the same amount of verbal empathy (high: 16% vs low: 15% p = 1.00). High JSE-S scorers’ non-verbal communication tended to be rated slightly higher than low JSE-S-scorers with a higher use of facial expression (p = 0.008).ConclusionThis study did not reveal any differences of students’ verbal empathy to patients’ cues and concerns between low and high JSE_S scorers.Practice implicationsThe VR-CoDES_P is a useful tool to assess medical students and physicians empathic behaviour, allowing to disentangle the different components of empathy.